North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 4, 2011 Page: 4 of 18
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Page 4
Sports
Friday, March 4,2011
Sean Gorman, Sports Editor
sgorman@ntdaily.com
Women's basketball prepares for con ference tournament
By Bobby Lewis
Senior Staff Writer
Tuesday night's 59-46 loss
to Arkansas-Little Rock made
10 straight losses for the Mean
Green basketball team, but
UNT is confident going into this
weekend's Sun Belt Conference
Tournament.
A tournament victory would
earn UNT (5-24, 2-14) an auto-
matic berth into the NCAA
Women's Basketball Tournament,
which begins March 19.
The first step is getting past
Western Kentucky (12-16, 9-7),
which beat UNT 69-64 on Jan.
8 in Bowling Green, Ky.
"Tournament play is like
regular season with the inten-
sity doubled," said head coach
Shanice Stephens. "It's fun to
be apart of that do-or-die situa-
tion. Even the preparation is fun,
with trying to think outside of
the box of what you've done
all year."
In the Lady Toppers'
victory over the Mean Green
two months ago, senior forward
Arnika Brown had a double-
double with 14 points and 14
rebounds. Brown led WKU in
both categories this season.
"My main focus is going to be
on Arnika, because she had nine
offensive rebounds, and I felt
like I was boxing her out, but she
still found a way to get around,"
said sophomore forward Jasmine
Godbolt. "Now, we've found a
way to fix that. It frustrates me
that she had nine [offensive
rebounds], so I don't want that
happening again."
Brown's offensive rebounds
led the way for WKU's 20 second
chance points. UNT had six
second-chance points, despite
18 offensive rebounds.
Godbolt grabbed eight of the
offensive boards onherway to 14
Springs, Ark.
Keys to victory
Contain Arnika Brown: The
senior forward leads the
Lady Toppers in points
(12.4) and rebounds
(8.9),
expert
ence going
into the tour-
nament with little
momentum. In
2008, UNT won its
first-round game
despite entering
the tournament
on a three-game
losing streak.
"With our
conference,
we are able
to have
a very
disap -
rebounds to go with 15 points.
Junior guard Tamara Torru
benefitted from Godbolt's pres-
ence in the post, as she led the
Mean Green in scoring with 16
points. When the game tips off,
Torru will play in the fifth confer-
ence tournament game of her
career.
"I think they were focused
in on [Godbolt] because she
draws a lot of attention, and
so they kind of sat back from
the outside, so I just tried to
take the opportunity," Torru
said.
Under Stephens, UNT
is 2-0 in conference
tournament first-
round games.
Stephens
has
to fast start and
sustain it: At one
point in the first
half of the Jan. 8 game
between the two teams,
UNTheld an 11-pointlead.
The Mean Green also led at
when X's and O's don't matter
anymore, which is essentially
what Stephens told her team at
the end ofThursday's practice.
The team knows how to play.
Now's the time to show it's much
better than what it has shown
Tournament play is like
regular season with the intensity
doubled. It's fun to be part of
that do-or-die situation "
—Shanice Stephens,
Head coach
pointing season,
but you still get another opportu-
nity," Stephens said. "Hopefully
try to make the most of it."
UNT and WKU will start off the
tournament at noon tomorrow
from The Summit Arena in Hot
went
for 14
points
and 14
rebounds
in WKU's
69-64 win
over UNT
two months
ago. UNT
sophomore
forward
Jasmine
Godbolt knew
exactly how
many offensive
boards Brown
had in that
game — nine,
whichledto20
WKU second-
chance points
— and was not
happy. It won't
be easy, but if the
Mean Green can
keep Brown off the
i offensive glass, it
has a great chance
_ f to get the win.Get off
halftime, but proceeded to shoot
25.7 percent in the second half.
Poor second halves have plagued
UNT all season, and the Mean
Green will have to change that
Saturday. If not, the Mean Green
will be back in Denton before the
weekend's end.
Score: It sounds simple, butUNT
hasn't been able to do that over its
last four games. Over that span,
U NT is averaging 48.2 points per
game, 33.5 rebounds per game
and shooting 56.9 percent from
the free-throw line.
For the entire season, the
Mean Green averaged 64.2 points
agame, 41.3 rebounds agame and
shot 61.1 percent from the free
throw line.
Put the regular season in the
rearviewmirror: Aregular season
record of 5-24 certainly wasn't
whathead coachShanice Stephens
andherteamwere hoping for, but
what's done is done. Every team
is 0-0 right now.
The regular season was a
miserable mess, but UNT can
forget about that and go play ball.
This team is now at the point
since November.
If UNT wins... Denver will be
waiting, which isn't great news.
Denver beat UNT twice this
season by a combined total of
43 points. If the Mean Green
advances on to face the Pioneers,
the game will tip off at 12:15 p.m.
Sunday.
Recent Sun Belt Tournament
success: Head coach Shanice
Stephens hasn't had great regular
season success since taking the
reigns of the teamin2008, buther
teams have found some tourna-
ment success.
In each of her first two seasons
withUNT, Stephensledherteam
to a first-round win. In her first
season, UNT was riding a three-
game losing streak going into the
tournament.
This season, UNT has lost 10
straight going into Saturday's
game against WKU.
SUN BELT CONFERENCE
2011 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
March 5-8,2011 > Hot Springs, Arkansas
SATURDAY,
MARCH 5
[W6] NORTH TEXAS
SUNDAY,
MARCH 6
MONDAY,
MARCH 7
12:00 p
Summit Arena
EJ WKU
[W2] DENVER
[E5] FLORIDA ATLANTIC
12:15 p
Convention Center
2P
Summit Arena
[W4J ARKANSAS STATE
12:00 p
Summit Arena
El] MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Championship Game
1 p.m.
[W5]LOUISIANA LAFAYETTE
[E4] SOUTH ALABAMA
s Central (CT) and are subject to change
Graphic courtesy of sunbeltsports.org
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 4, 2011, newspaper, March 4, 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth164991/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.