North Texas Daily

On paper, the matchup between North Texas and University of Texas at San Antonio favored the Mean Green. UTSA entered the night winners of three games overall, while North Texas had won 11 games. However, each team was on a four-game losing skid so, obviously, something had to give.

Early on, both teams played a desperation brand of basketball and neither was able to pull away as a result. As the game wore on and shots stopped falling for North Texas, their hopes of ending the drought would fall short once again as UTSA defeated North Texas 70-58 in San Antonio Friday night.

“We didn’t come out with as much energy as they did,” junior guard Grace Goodhart said. “They came out ready to take it to us like they had nothing to lose. We didn’t match their intensity. We didn’t match their energy. We dug ourselves into a hole during the third quarter that we eventually could not get out of.”

While the Roadrunners (4-17, 2-7) marked up the stat sheet by turning the ball over 23 times, North Texas was only able to score nine points off those mistakes. The Mean Green, meanwhile, finished the night with nine turnovers overall. After being down two points 35-33 entering halftime, the Mean Green allowed UTSA to go on a 11-0 run to begin the third quarter.

North Texas struggled shooting the ball during the third quarter missing 12 straights shots, while the Roadrunners held North Texas to a 15.8 shooting percentage that quarter. The Mean Green opted to switch to a full court press, which worked at times, but also caused many of their key players to get into foul trouble.

With 1:17 minutes left in the third quarter all three of North Texas post players had four fouls. Ultimately, making it hard for them rebound and protect the paint. UTSA finished the game with 33 free throw attempts and head coach Jalie Mitchell expressed her players need to do a better job at being aggressive defensively.

“I mean 33 free throws is a ton to shoot,” Mitchell said. “[We need to be] willing to step up and take charges instead of just kind of grabbing for blocks or gambling. I thought we got out of position a lot, just gambling to be quite honest.”

Despite North Texas losing the last five games and sitting twelfth out of 14 team’s, players remain confident in the process. The mantra of this years team is “Now or Never”, and with seven games remaining, each game will play a pivotal role into determining if North Texas makes the Conference USA Tournament come March.

“We got to go back to being tough, that’s on defense that’s on offense and the whole entire game,” junior guard Brittany Smith said. “We’ll get out of it. We have to find our way back to how we use to be.”

Next up: North Texas heads to Florida to take on Florida International University, Thursday at 6 p.m.

Featured image: Junior Terriell Bradley (Guard) fends against two defenders. Point Guard Brittany Smith makes herself open for a pass.