North Texas Daily

Clay Massey | Senior Staff Writer

It’s been 38 days since Tony Benford and the North Texas men’s basketball team have won a game.

And on Saturday, the days since that last win continued to march on, as the Mean Green (6-15, 0-9) fell to Old Dominion University 73-67 at The Super Pit.

With just over a minute to play, North Texas trailed 65-64. The Monarchs (13-8, 6-3) then went to the line and both free throws, extending their lead to three.

The Mean Green got one more look with 22.6 seconds on the clock underneath the basket. Senior forward Derail Green lined up a three-pointer, but it was no good. The two teams exchanged free throws down the stretch, but in the final minute North Texas shot just 3-of-7 from the charity stripe.

“I thought our guys came out and played hard,” Benford said. “They made some big shots.”

North Texas was led by senior guard J-Mychal Reese, who finished with 17 points. The Mean Green had three scorers reach double-digits as sophomore center Rickey Brice Jr. scored 13 points while junior forward Shane Temara added 12 points to go along with eight rebounds.

Temara continued what has been a strong stretch of games cleaning the glass.

“I’ve been in the game a little longer,” Temara said. “I’m just hitting guys and playing aggressively.”

It took both offenses a bit to settle in as the teams sputtered out of the gate. The Monarchs clicked first, taking advantage of a Mean Green scoring drought that lasted nearly three minutes. North Texas kick-started its offense from the free-throw line, where it has traditionally struggled all season.

The Mean Green shot 100 percent from the charity stripe in the first half.

But the half had yet another Mean Green scoring drought in store as North Texas finished the final 2:39 of the half without a point.

Old Dominion used that time to take a three-point lead into the locker room at 30-27.

The Mean Green then went blow for blow with the Monarchs in the second half, as the offense centered around its main facilitator in Reese.

Reese was moved to point guard when freshman Ryan Woolridge was not in the game. Woolridge had six assists on the afternoon.

“I wanted to use Reese off the ball because of his ability to score,” Benford said. “I moved him with Ryan not in the game. I thought he was making a good concentrated effort to get everyone involved. With Deckie not at 100 percent we need him to be more assertive moving forward.”

Brice played a key role on both sides of the ball for the Mean Green after returning from an ankle injury that recently sidelined him for a stretch of four games.

“I still need to do some rehab,” Brice said. “Pain is temporary. I just got to fight through it and do what I can to help this team win.”

With their losing streak now in double-digits at 10 games, the Mean Green will continue their homestand against Rice University at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Featured Image: North Texas senior guard J-Mychal Reese (52) drives the lane against Old Dominion University. Reese missed two free throws in the final minutes of the game that would have pulled the Mean Green within one possession of ODU. Colin Mitchell