Men's Basketball

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (1/30/10) - North Texas had a late rally on the road but Middle Tennessee held off the Mean Green 69-64 to win its fifth straight game. North Texas (13-8, 6-5) trailed the entire contest and had two opportunities late but came up short in its bid to win for the third straight time.

"I thought that we came out and let them be the aggressor as opposed to last year when we were, and we just didn't set the tone tonight," said coach Johnny Jones. "They made a lot of tough plays late and they are a great basketball team at home."

Trailing 64-55 with 3:15 left in the game, the Mean Green began its rally. Cam Spencer converted a 3-point play followed by a Colin Mangrum 3-pointer to cut the Blue Raider lead to 64-61 with 2:25 left in the game. After a Blue Raider basket, Shannon Shorter buried a 3-pointer with 1:35 left to make it a 66-64 game.

Josh White then came up with a steal and the Mean Green had the ball with less than a minute to play. Middle Tennessee (13-10, 8-3) was able to force a turnover though and Rod Emanuel converted it with a dunk with 40 seconds left.

North Texas had one final chance but a 3-pointer by Tristan Thompson fell short.

The opening half was a defensive battle as the Blue Raiders held a two-point lead at 8-6 five minutes in.

Desmond Yates and James Gallman fueled a 14-4 run by Middle Tennessee over the next eight minutes as the Blue Raiders opened up a 22-10 lead.  Both players knocked down 3-pointers and Montarrio Haddock added a 3-point play during the run.

 Thompson and White were able to jump start the North Texas offense late in the first half. Thompson knocked down a 3-pointer and White had a 3-point play as the Mean Green went on an 11-4 run to cut the MTSU lead to 26-21 with 3:56 left.

The half ended with a flurry as both teams had 3-point plays in the final seconds. First MTSU's Calvin O'Neil converted a 3-point play with 5.9 seconds left in the half. North Texas raced back down and George Odufuwa scored and was fouled with just nine-tenths of a second left in the half. Odufuwa connected on the free throw and it a 35-31 Middle Tennessee lead at the half.

Thompson had 17 points and Odufuwa recorded another double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

The Mean Green return home Wednesday night for another key Sun Belt matchup against Florida Atlantic on Thursday night at the Super Pit.