Men's Basketball
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photo courtesy of Rick Yeatts
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NT Hoops Hopes To Sweep Owls Thursday Night |
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North Texas (10-18, 5-12) vs. Florida Atlantic (12-16, 7-10) DENTON, Texas – It took an overtime period, but North Texas got the best of Florida Atlantic in January in Boca Raton, Fla. On Thursday, the Owls will look to hold off a Mean Green series sweep against an NT team that is red hot offensively. NT is beginning to grasp Tony Benford’s North Texas offense, making NT nearly unstoppable over the last three games. Over this span, NT has averaged 71.0 points on 55.3 percent shooting, including a 48.3 percent clip from 3-point and an 80.3 percent free throw mark. In fact, NT is +4.7 in rebounding margin, and is averaging 6.7 blocks and 13.7 assists as well. Over the last eight games, Jordan Williams has been scoring as well as any guard in the country. The sophomore is coming off a 25-point outing at Troy that featured 7-of-9 shooting from 3-point, which was just one 3-pointer from tying the NT record. NT leads the overall series with Florida Atlantic, 6-3, including NT’s overtime win in Boca Raton in January, which was the program’s first win at FAU in three tries. The last two meetings between these two have combined for three overtimes. Greg Gantt has turned into the Sun Belt’s premier scorer. He leads the league with an average of 21.4 per points game, and is shooting 39.1 percent from deep. Two of the league’s top shot blockers will meet when NT and FAU take the floor. The Owls lead the league with 5.2 blocks per game, and NT ranks third with 4.8. Tony Mitchell leads the SBC with 2.7 per game, and FAU’s Kelvin Penn ranks second with 2.3. Mitchell is averaging 23.0 points and 14.5 rebounds per game in two career outings against Florida Atlantic. Those figures include a 24 point outing in January that helped NT beat the Owls for the first time in Boca Raton.
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