DENTON, Texas ? North Texas’ Brittney James’ career-high 33 points was too much for the University of South Alabama women’s basketball team as the Mean Green captured an 87-53 Sun Belt Conference victory Thursday evening at the Super Pit.
USA (14-7, 5-5 SBC) will continue its current road swing and take on Louisiana-Monroe Saturday at 5:30 p.m., in Monroe, La. North Texas improves to 10-11 on the season and 5-4 in Sun Belt play with the win.
James was on fire in the UNT win, connecting on 12 of her 17 shoots from the field. The sophomore guard who entered the game shooting just 27 percent from beyond the arc, drained four of her six attempts from long range against the Lady Jags. As a team, North Texas was shooting just 23 percent from three-point range, but on Thursday night, the Mean Green connected on 37.5 percent of their attempts.
UNT’s Amber Jackson (16) and Tricia Lee (10) also recorded double figures for the Mean Green. South Alabama was led offensively in the loss by Shakira Nettles’ 12 points. Monique Jones and Brittney Rutledge also finished the game in double digits with 11 points apiece.
For the game, USA was just 20-of-65 from the field for 30.8 percent and also hit just six of its 25 attempts from beyond the arc. North Texas finished the contest a blistering 36-of-70 from the floor for 51 percent shooting. Two key stats of the game were in the rebounding and points in the paint categories. UNT out rebounded the Jags 50-33 and outscored South Alabama 44-16 in the paint.
After South Alabama jumped out to an early 10-4 lead three minutes into the game, North Texas reeled off 13 unanswered points over the next five minutes to grab a 17-10 lead. James gave the Mean Green the seven-point lead with a pair of free throws with 13 minutes, 32 seconds left on the clock. South Alabama’s Jones ended the UNT run when the Jag senior drained a 15-foot jumper at the 12:44 mark. USA’s Karina Sproal cut the deficit to four at 27-23 with a three-pointer from the top of the key with just under nine minutes left in the period, but North Texas kept up its hot shooting. After a Shakira Nettles basket at the 7:05 mark pulled the Lady Jags to within six at 31-25, the Mean Green erupted for another huge run, this one a 16-2 spurt over the next six minutes. James, drained one of her two first half three-pointers from the right wing with under a minute to go before the intermission to put UNT up 47-27. North Texas headed into the locker room with the 51-32 lead.
The 19-point halftime deficit was the second largest of the season for South Alabama and the 51 points scored by North Texas in the first 20 minutes of play was the most allowed by the Lady Jags since surrendering 45 against Villanova back on Nov. 23 in the opening round of the odwalla Classic in San Francisco, Calif.
In the first period of play North Texas was a blistering 21-of-36 from the field for 58.3 percent. James and Jackson led the Mean Green with 18 and 12 first half points, respectively. The duo combined to knock down 12 of North Texas’ 21 first half field goals.
As most of the game, UNT did most of its damage in the first period of play in the paint, outscoring USA 26-6. North Texas also recorded 16 points off 10 Jag turnovers in the opening period of play, compared to just six by South Alabama.
Jones led the Lady Jags with 10 first half points on 4-of-6 shooting, including two treys.
Coming out of the locker room, North Texas kept the momentum from the start of the second half, opening up the period on a 16-4 run during the first four and a half minutes. James led the way for the Mean Green, scoring the first 10 points of the period for UNT. South Alabama had no answer for the Mean Green the rest of the way as UNT continued to execute on the offensive end of the floor, eventually leading by as many as 41 (85-44) before taking the 34-point win.
