Feb. 17, 2005

Box Score

DENTON, Texas - A shot by Leonard Hopkins with .03 seconds remaining gave North Texas a 68-66 Sun Belt Conference victory over the Denver Pioneers tonight at the Super Pit. Senior guard Erik Benzel (Spokane, Wash.) had 20 points, but it was not enough as Denver fell to 15-9 overall and 9-3 in the SBC. The Mean Green improve to 13-11, 5-7.

Junior center Yemi Nicholson (Aurora, Colo.) finished with 17 points before fouling out with 2:29 left and sophomore forward Antonio Porch (Denver, Colo.) finished with 11 points before fouling out with five minutes remaining. Junior forward Andrew Carpenter (Toronto, Ontario) had 10 as Denver made only 36.7 percent (22-60) of their shots. The Pioneers were 16-of-17 (.941) of their free throws.

Leonard Hopkins (18), Ron Harris (16) and Calvin Watson (12) were in double-figures for North Texas. UNT outrebounded the Pioneers 42-28.

"Our fouling too much didn't allow us to get into any type of flow," said head coach Terry Carroll. "We gave them far too many free throws and far too many second chance points. We were fortunate to even be in game considering we were outrebounded the way we were."

Benzel made two 3-pointers early to give Denver a six-point lead, but a tough jumper by Hopkins closed the gap to 38-34 with 15:32 remaining in the game. The Mean Green and Hopkins kept coming with Hopkins tying the score at 41-41 at the 11:56 mark.

The two squads remained tied when a layup by Carpenter with 7:46 left made the score 47-47. Another basket by Carpenter at the 3:29 mark gave the Pioneers a 59-58 lead. The two schools were close down the stretch when Hopkins made a baseline jumper to give the Mean Green a 68-66 victory.

The Mean Green had their way on the offensive end early, taking a 10-6 lead off a Jeffery Simpson layup with 15:57 remaining in the first half. North Texas added to the lead as a Michael Jones put back at the 11:05 mark upped the score to 18-13. Carpenter scored four of Denver's next six points as the Pioneers finally got on track, taking their first lead of the game at 19-18 with 7:59 left in the half.

UNT moved back in front by five, but a layup by freshman forward Joseph Jackson (Louisville, Neb.) at the 3:31 mark pulled Denver to within three at 26-23. Both teams finally got it going over the final three minutes with junior guard Brett Seger (Omaha, Neb.) tying the score at 30-30 at the break.

The Pioneers only shot 33.3 (10-30) percent as the Mean Green made 50.0 percent (13-26) of their shots. Denver was 8-of-9 (.889) from the free-throw line. Harris, who only averages 4.4 points per game had 10 for North Texas in the first half alone.

The Pioneers play their final regular-season road when they travel to Las Cruces, N.M. to battle Sun Belt Conference rival New Mexico State at 7:30 p.m. MT.