Men's Basketball

Box Score

DENTON, Texas (11/13/09) - Josh White scored 19 points and George Odufuwa posted a career-high 24 rebounds to lead the North Texas men's basketball team to an 80-62 victory against Cameron in the Mean Green season opener on Friday night at the Super Pit.

The Mean Green is now 1-0 this season and 50-42 in all-time season openers. Head coach Johnny Jones has never lost an opening game in his tenure at North Texas. He is now 9-0 in opening games.  The North Texas men's basketball program also won its 1,000 game in school history.

White scored 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. He made five three-pointers. Odufuwa led all rebounders with 24 boards. He pulled down almost half of NT's 50 rebounds. He also poured in 12 points to collect his first double-double of the season. Richard Thomas and Eric Tramiel joined the duo in double-figure scoring with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

North Texas started the game off slow with Cameron holding an early 8-3. The Mean Green slowly picked up steam. White tied the game at 18 with one of his four three-pointers in the first half and following an Alzee Williams' jumper, North Texas took the lead and never looked back.

Odufuwa got the crowd energized with a block at one end and a dunk at the other to give North Texas a 24-18 lead. A pair of three-pointers at the end of the half by White and Collin Mangrum gave North Texas a 48-31 halftime lead.

The Mean Green outscored Cameron, 18-9, in the last seven minutes of the first half. The run proved to be key in the game. NT only outscored its opponent, 35-33, in the second half.

North Texas quickly built its lead in the second half, holding a 20-point lead, 51-31, at 14:19 after a Tramiel free throw. The Mean Green scored 24 points from the free-throw line for a 74.7 shooting percentage. Cameron went 4-for-10 from the charity stripe.

Midway through the second half, Cameron went on an 18-7 run to cut the Mean Green lead to 11 points, 67-56, with 6:24 left in the game. Jacquez Williams scored 10 points in the run. He finished with a team-high 18 points.

North Texas responded with eight straight points and held onto the double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Fourteen Mean Green players saw action tonight against Cameron. Mangrum came off the bench to score nine points.

North Texas returns to action on Wednesday, Nov. 18 when it travels to Arlington to face UT Arlington at 7 p.m.