North Texas coach Grant McCasland watches his team play during a win at the Super Pit earlier this season. UNT knocked off Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
North Texas coach Grant McCasland watches his team play during a win at the Super Pit earlier this season. UNT knocked off Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
North Texas faced a schedule that resembled a meat grinder early in Grant McCasland’s third season with the Mean Green.
UNT played three nationally ranked teams, not to mention Oklahoma and Arkansas. There have been plenty of tough losses and tight games along the way.
That’s what made the Mean Green’s 86-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday at the Super Pit particularly satisfying for UNT.
The Mean Green rolled to an easy win in their final game before a six-day holiday break and got nearly everyone on the roster involved. UNT had 13 players score, including seldom-used backup guard JJ Murray.
The junior drilled a 3 late in the second half, setting off a wild celebration on the UNT bench.
UNT (5-7) had lost two of its last three games.
Grant McCasland
“You don’t ever want to get used to losing,” McCasland said. “A team that hasn’t played together much, having them know that hard work leads to wins is important.”
UNT’s plan all along was to grow through a challenging nonconference slate before opening league play on Jan. 2 at Western Kentucky.
UNT has one more tune-up game left against Texas Wesleyan on Dec. 28 after its holiday break.
“We are more prepared,” UNT guard Javion Hamlet said. “We played one of the toughest schedules in the country. We will be ready when conference play comes.”
The Mean Green certainly looked ready in one of their more complete performances of the season.
Hamlet scored 15 points to lead three UNT players who finished in double figures. Zachary Simmons added 12 points and Thomas Bell 11.
UNT hit 10 shots from 3-point range and shot 53.6% (30 of 56) from the field.
UABP (1-10) couldn’t keep pace. Nicholas Jones came off the bench to score 17 points for the Golden Lions, while Dequan Morris added 12.
The pair helped keep UAPB in the game early on before UNT blew the game open with a 20-2 run in the first half.
James Reese hit a 3 to open the run that included three dunks. Zachary Simmons capped the run the run with a layup that put UNT up 32-12.
“We were all running to our spots,” Hamlet said. “Coach has emphasized spacing, moving the ball, getting great looks and knocking down shots.”
McCasland and his players credited their performance offensively largely to Bell and the rest of its reserves who came in off the bench and provided a spark.
“We got a lot of good energy from our bench,” Simmons said. “They stepped it up for us and gave us a big push halfway through the first half that carried us throughout the game.”
The challenge now for UNT is to carry that momentum through its Christmas break and into conference play. The Mean Green have yet to win back-to-back games this season and still feel like they have a lot to improve on.
UNT turned the ball over 15 times and sent UAPB to the free-throw line a few too many times for McCasland’s taste. The Golden Lions went 19-for-25 from the stripe.
“You can see that turnovers and fouls are areas we have to improve on,” McCasland said. “We need to continue to play aggressive basketball.”
UNT feels a whole lot better about tackling those challenges after a runaway win over UAPB that showed it has grown while facing a tough schedule.
“It was big time, especially going into the break,” Simmons said of the way UNT dominated UAPB. “These games can be easy to lose focus in. For us to come out and be mature enough to hunker down and get it done was big for us.”
