26 Feb 2013
Sports Editor
Audra Stamp / Staff Writer
After coming off of three consecutive losses, the UNT women’s basketball team will play at home against Arkansas State University tonight in hopes of one last win before the Sun Belt Conference Tournament March 8-11.
Head coach Mike Petersen said that the team plays well in spurts, and when the Mean Green starts to make mistakes, it loses its energy.
“Our ‘good’ is really good,” Petersen said. “The problem in the last few games is that we haven’t had our ‘good’ long enough. But this group has proven all year long that we can compete with pretty much anybody.”
Despite the losses (10-18, 9-10), the team is trying to focus on the positive notes and plans to play a whole game of consistent, high-energy basketball.
“We just have to be focused and most importantly come out and play hard,” junior guard Laura McCoy said. “We can’t have streaks of the game where we let up. We just have to play hard the whole time.”
Last time the Mean Green faced ASU (15-12, 12-6), it came from behind to win 64-62. Only two of ASU’s players scored in double digits, while freshman forward Alexis Hyder led the Mean Green with 23 points. Senior forward Sara Stanley and junior guard Desiree Nelson both had 12 points.
“This team has come back from behind and won a lot of games,” Petersen said. “I thought we battled really well, and we were very good down the stretch.”
ASU is coming off of two wins and is currently ranked second, just above the Mean Green in the SBC West Division. While ASU leads in field goal percentage at .438, UNT freshman guard Loryn Goodwin is second in three-point percentage and leads the conference in steals, averaging three per game.
Although UNT won’t be able to increase its third-place ranking going into the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, the team hopes that a win will be a happy ending for Stanley, the only senior on the team.
“I’ve had a lot of fun this year,” Stanley said. “New coach, new system, but all in all it was a lot of fun.”
The game will tip off in the Super Pit at 7 p.m. tonight.
