The UNT men's basketball team made a double-digit second half comeback on Thursday versus St. John's but fell 53-52 to the Red Storm in the quarterfinal of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic.

With four seconds remaining Aaron Scott attempted a mid-range jumper that would have given the Mean Green the lead, but it rimmed out. UNT (2-1) trailed (RV) SJU (2-1) by 10 at the half.

UNT will play its second game of the three-game four-day tournament on Friday at 10:30 A.M. CT versus either LSU or Dayton. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU and the Mean Green Sports Network, presented by Learfield.

"First I want to give a lot of credit to coach (Rick) Pitino and his team," said North Texas head coach Ross Hodge. "His team plays really hard for him and they have really good players who don't make anything easy for you."

"I thought we were really well prepared. It never comes down to one final play. There were a lot of little things we need to do better. But the game changed because we were able to start defensive rebounding," he added.
The Mean Green outrebounded the long Red Storm 39-36 over the 40 minutes of the game but at the half were down five in the rebounding battle.

It took UNT just seven minutes in the second half to make the 10-point comeback and tie the game. From there on out for the rest of the game the two teams traded leads. North Texas held its final lead with 1:12 remaining. A pair of free throws by St. John's shortly thereafter gave them the eventual game-winning lead.

UNT had its opportunity, though. A baseline steal by Aaron Scott with 16 second remaining and down one point allowed the Mean Green to call a timeout and draw up a potential game winner. Scott dribbled to his right and had a look just inside the three-point arc but was unsuccessful.

Scott led North Texas in scoring Thursday as he finished with 13 points, seven rebound and two steals.

"(St. John's) makes it hard on you," Hodge said. "But our guys believe that we are one of the best defensive teams in the country. You're not always going to shoot the ball really well but you got to find a way to keep yourself in the game and I thought our guys did that really well today."

For more information on UNT men's basketball season tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Fans can visit the UNT Athletics Ticket Office located at Gate 2 of DATCU Stadium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.