by DENTON – In a game that saw 23 lead changes, the UNT men’s basketball team defeated Florida Atlantic at home Sunday afternoon, 73-72.
The Mean Green (16-12, 7-8) were led in scoring by sophomore Je’Shawn Stevenson who finished with a career high 29 points. Two other North Texas players ended in double figures in the win over the Owls (15-13, 7-8). David Terrell Jr. scored 16 points and Buddy Hammer Jr. came off the bench to score a career high 10 points.
“I’m really proud of how our team battled,” said UNT head coach Daniyal Robinson whose now 16 regular season wins are the third-most by a first-year Mean Green head coach. “Give credit to FAU, they came in and pushed us to the limits. I’m proud of our guys for defending home court. Home court advantage is something we want to establish here and to beat a good team like Florida Atlantic goes a long way in establishing that identity.”
Stevenson began the day missing his first six 3-point attempts. The team’s leading 3-point shooter was held to just five points in the first half.
But with 14 minutes left in the game and his team in desperate need of an offensive jolt Stevenson buried his first three of the game. The shot opened the game up for the Chicago native as he followed up the three by making his next four shot attempts including two more 3-pointers.
Stevenson also attacked the paint in the second half and got to the free throw line as he was 7-of-7 at the charity stripe in the second half and 8-of-8 overall.
The play of the game, though, came with 4:21 left on the clock and FAU holding the lead for nearly four straight minutes, Stevenson squared up a long three with Owls’ star freshman Josiah Parker giving him space and the Mean Green sophomore sank the deep shot to give his team a lead.
While the shot energized the Super Pit crowd and quieted FAU’s bench, the Owls took back the lead on the next possession.
However, there would be six more lead changes after that.
The final lead change came with 14 seconds on the clock and UNT trailing 72-71. Stevenson got to the foul line and swished his two free throw attempts to give his Mean Green the eventual deciding one point lead.
FAU’s Yohann Sissoko got one final attempt with three seconds remaining, but his contested layup rimmed out for the UNT victory.
