North Texas Daily

Alex Lessard | Staff Writer

@alexlikechexmix

In a game riddled with mistakes and bad execution from both sides, 24 turnovers for the Mean Green ultimately led to a 45-38 loss to Weber State University. It marked the fifth time this season head coach Jalie Mitchell’s squad committed 20 or more turnovers in a game.

Despite holding the Wildcats to single-digit scoring in three of four quarters, getting stops did not help create easy buckets on the other end for North Texas. Its 38-point scoring effort was the team’s lowest since losing to Texas A&M University on Dec. 31 last year.

“I thought we gave that team ten minutes of North Texas basketball, all in the fourth quarter, and that’s not enough,” head coach Jalie Mitchell said.

After committing five of the team’s nine turnovers in the first quarter, junior guard Kelsey Criner picked up her second foul and was benched until re-entering the game at the beginning of the second half. Criner had been the team’s primary creator in the first five games of the season, leading the team with nearly four assists per game.

But foul trouble was scattered among most of the Mean Green starters, forcing Mitchell to play all ten of her available players, including a career debut for newly added freshman guard Orianna Shillow.

“A lot of the people that were in foul trouble got called for the same kind of fouls. We never adjusted to the refs or what they were calling,” Mitchell said. “To me, that shows our heads weren’t in the game.”

After heading into the intermission with a two-point lead, things fell apart in the third quarter. Weber State’s 12-0 run put North Texas in a hole to climb as the clock kept ticking. While senior forward Achiel Tac brought crucial energy on both ends of the floor with 13 points and 10 rebounds, defensive miscues from the entire team caused it to fall behind.

But the defense was revitalized in the fourth quarter, forcing three shot clock violations and trimming the lead to three with under two minutes to go.

“Looking from the sideline, I feel like we finally realized we need to win this game,” Tac said of the team’s fourth quarter. “We needed to wake up and get going.”

Mistakes came back to bite North Texas in the end, turning the ball over three separate times in the final two minutes, including one off an in-bounds play after a timeout in a crucial moment. The Mean Green were still within striking distance with under a minute remaining, but an offensive rebound and put-back to extend the lead to five put the nail in the coffin.

“That was such an embarrassing game. The talent we have on this team wasn’t portrayed out there,” Tac said. “We just played crappy. We didn’t play to our potential. We didn’t give our all.”

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