North Texas Daily

The No. 10 North Texas men’s basketball team (21-12, Conference USA 9-11) fell in the quarterfinals round of the Conference USA Championship Tournament to No. 2 Western Kentucky (19-13, Conference USA 12-7) with a final score of 67-51. Their last loss to the Hilltoppers came on Feb. 9 with the Mean Green losing by three in a 62-59-point loss.

“Credit to Western Kentucky, what a great start they had, they were physical defensively to start the game,” head coach Grant McCasland said. “[Western Kentucky] took it to us, we got sped up, and to be honest I did a terrible job to start the game, I just didn’t give us a chance to win.”

North Texas went into the half with a 15–point deficit, down 16-31. The last time the Mean Green played Western Kentucky they went into the half with a 15-point deficit as well. North Texas shot 24 percent from the field on 6-for-25 shooting compared to the Hilltoppers’ shooting 38.5 percent on 10-for-26 shooting. The Mean Green also scored 10 turnovers and 15 rebounds in concert with Western Kentucky’s 25 rebounds to conclude the first half.

Western Kentucky finished the game with a similar shooting percentage of 38.9 on 21-for-59 shooting. However, they managed to get to the free throw line effectively after shooting 20-for-28 from the line. North Texas ended the game, shooting 30 percent (18-for-60) of their shots from the field and 18.7 percent (5-for-27) from beyond the arc.

“We have a lot of talent on this team and a lot of guys working hard,” sophomore forward Zachary Simmons said. “Shots just didn’t fall, and we didn’t get enough stops tonight.”

Simmons came close to a second consecutive double-double as he finished the night playing a total of 31 minutes and scoring eight points along with a team-high 13 rebounds. The previous night the sophomore forward attained a double-double and grabbed 16 boards in concert with scoring 19 points.

Junior guard Ryan Woolridge played 30 minutes serving as a bench role and scored a team-high 13 points in this game and totaled five rebounds, six assists and one steal. His two made 3-pointers were the most by a player for North Texas against the Hilltoppers.

Redshirt freshman guard Umoja Gibson played 30 minutes and accumulated 7 points on 2-for-8 shooting from the field. Gibson also recorded three assists, a steal and a rebound. Gibson shot 1-for-7 from beyond the arc in tonight’s match with the Hilltoppers. This was after a game when he scored 21 points, all of them coming from the three-point line. Gibson came into this game being second place all-time for 3-pointers in a season with 98. He finished the conference tournament at 99.

Senior guard Michael Miller played 17 minutes and did not score a point after shooting 0-for-4 from the field, collecting three rebounds and turning the ball over three times.

North Texas is now 1-3 in Conference USA Tournament games in the McCasland Era with their first appearance in the quarterfinals with McCasland as head coach.

“No matter how the season was going we always expect a championship level from our team,” Simmons said. “To not be competing for that, is tough for us.” 

Featured Image: Mean Green redshirt freshman Umoja Gibson shields off a Hilltopper defender at the game against Western Kentucky at The Star on March 14, 2019. Image by: Trevon McWilliams.