Men’s basketball takes fourth loss of season to Old Dominion
The North Texas Mean Green men’s basketball team (18-4, 6-3 Conference USA) fell 61-72 to Old Dominion (17-6, 7-3 C-USA) on Thursday.
Despite Mean Green making more field goals and 3-pointers on the night, the Monarchs lead the entire game. Junior guard Ryan Woolridge led both teams in scoring with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field with a recorded seven assists and five rebounds.
Senior guard Michael Miller and redshirt freshman guard Umoja Gibson both shot in the double digits, with 17 and 14 points respectively. North Texas was lacking senior starting guard Jorden Duffy.
Head coach Grant McCasland said that while the team has talent, there are faults.
“I think our group has some bright spots to it,” McCasland said. “We have multiple people who can’t play well and that’s just the truth of it.”
Junior guard Roosevelt Smart struggled to get anything to fall, shooting 1-of-9 from the field and 1-of-8 from deep. In the first half, North Texas didn’t take a trip to the free throw line and only went once in the second half when Miller went 1-of-2 from the line.
“Our team has a hard time driving the ball and making aggressive plays,” McCasland said. “You can’t plan on winning games unless you have more physicality.”
The Mean Green struggled down low on the night, allowing the Monarchs to score 22 points in the paint in the first half. North Texas lost the battle on the boards 40 to 31.
“They physically gave it to us,” McCasland said. “They got to the paint, made layups at the rim. Anytime you’re giving up that many points in the paint like that you’re not going to win.”
North Texas ran a short rotation against Old Dominion, having three players come off the bench. Four of the Mean Green’s 61 total points came from bench players.
“I do love this team,” McCasland said. “We’ve got a long way to go. You can tell as a team our depth is diminished.”
This loss now takes the Mean Green out of first place for C-USA.
“Everybody’s got to be good if we’re going to be good,” McCasland said.
UP NEXT: North Texas will play at Charlotte (5-16, 2-8 C-USA) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3.
Featured Image: Redshirt junior guard DJ Draper drives the ball against a Blue Raider defender at the game against Middle Tennessee on Saturday, Jan. 26. Image by: Trevon McWilliams.
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