28 Jan 2013
Sports Editor
Ryne Gannoe / Senior Staff Writer
The Mean Green women’s basketball team dropped to second place in the Sun Belt West Division on Saturday after its third-straight loss.
UNT battled the University of Arkansas-Little Rock down to the final minutes before losing 52-48.
Head coach Mike Petersen said he is excited about having an opportunity to win the division.
“You know who isn’t worried about it being a tough stretch?” Petersen said. “The team that’s in last. They don’t know if it’s tough or not. I think it’s awesome we’re in a tough stretch. It means the games we’re playing are valuable and I think that’s great.”
UNT (7-13, 6-5) outscored UALR (13-7, 6-6) 26-21 in the first half, but the Trojans’ offense came alive in the second half, scoring 31 points while the Mean Green added only 22.
Freshman forward Alexis Hyder led the team with 11 points, 10 of which came in the first half. Freshman guard Loryn Goodwin and sophomore guard BreAnna Dawkins each scored nine points. Hyder said that each teammate needs to take responsibility for her mistakes.
“For me personally, especially in a loss, you have to be accountable for your actions and it will help the team later,” Hyder said. “For me, I think I played great the first half. It’s called ‘playing all 40 minutes,’ and the second half I didn’t play all 20 minutes.”
UNT normally averages 5.5 made three-point shots per game, but only landed two of 15 attempts on Saturday. The Mean Green’s 13.3 percent from the three-point line is less than half of its usual 31.3 percent efficiency.
Petersen said he thought the team played well, especially rebounding and limiting its turnovers, but some of the shots just didn’t fall UNT’s way.
“It’s a ‘make/miss’ game,” Petersen said. “I thought we had a lot of good looks we didn’t make. Normally we are a pretty reliable shooting team.”
Senior forward Sara Stanley said the team needs to settle down and focus on sticking to the game plan.
“I thought there were plays throughout the whole game that if we would have executed, we would have won,” Stanley said. “We just have to be us. If we execute, take care of the ball and rebound, we shouldn’t have a problem with it.”
UNT hopes to halt its slide down the standings against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (7-13, 1-10) on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
