TERRE HAUTE, IND. ? The Indiana State Sycamores struggled to find their rhythm and could not cool off a hot shooting North Texas team, dropping their second contest of the season 80-69 in the Indiana State home opener in the Hulman Center Sunday afternoon.
Carl Richard led four Sycamores into double figures with 17 points. Josh Crawford added 16 points, Aaron Carter 12 and Rashad Reed. Carter paced the Sycamores in rebounding with nine while Crawford had two blocks.
Dominque Johnson had 17 points to pace North Texas with Josh White adding 16 and Eric Tramiel 15. George Odufuwa and Kedrick Hogans had 10 rebounds each.
Indiana State drops to 0-2 on the season and will return to the Hulman Center on Wednesday night when they host Murray State at 7 p.m. (ET). North Texas improves to 3-1 on the season and will host Jackson State on Wednesday.
It was a fast pace opening half of play with the score tied five times in the early going, the final time at 13 after ISU's Crawford connected from short range with 14:32 left. North Texas' Tramiel knocked down two free throws and added a lay-up with 9:53 left to give the Mean Green a 17-13 advantage.
After Carter banged one home from long distance to bring the Sycamores back to within one, North Texas scored four more points to take their largest lead at 22-16. Crawford led an Indiana State rally late in the half scoring seven of ISU's final 11 points.
Richard scored two on a short jumper with 1:12 left and Jay Tunnell scored his first points of the game on two free throws with 44 seconds left as the Sycamores fought back to trail 33-31 at the break.
Richard tied the game up at the start of the second half and a Crawford three-pointer gave ISU their first lead since early in the game, 38-35. Indiana State was able to open their biggest lead of the game at 46-42 after an Isiah Martin bucket with 13:31 left.
North Texas used a 13-2 run over the next three minutes to move in front 55-48 with 10 minutes left in the contest. The Sycamores were down 57-53 after two Richard free throws but the Mean Machine ran off 10 straight points in taking a 67-53 advantage.
Richard stopped the run with a bucket off an offensive rebound with 4:06 left, was fouled, and made the free throw to cut the North Texas lead to 67-56. Tunnell scored his first field goal of the game with 2:23 left, a three-pointer from the top of the key that cut the ISU deficit to 67-59.
North Texas held off the Sycamores in the final two minutes of the game, making 13-of-14 free throws in holding on to post their third win of the season.
