Lady Techsters falter in OT at North Texas

DENTON, Texas – Amber Dixon scored a career-high 26 points but it wasn’t enough as North Texas pulled out a 74-69 overtime victory Saturday afternoon at The Super Pit.

Tech (9-7, 1-4 C-USA) rode the back of Dixon, an Arlington native, and was just seconds away from winning in regulation. Dixon gave the Lady Techsters a 63-62 lead on a conventional three-point play with 12.2 seconds to play in the fourth quarter.

“Amber battled today,” said Tech head coach Brooke Stoehr. “She gave everything she had. She was the reason we were in this game. I told her that her missed free throw (in the final second of regulation) was the reason we lost this game. We wouldn’t have been in a position to win this game without her effort today.”

After timeouts by both teams and some fouls, North Texas still trailed by one with 3.3 seconds to play. However, the Mean Green lobbed an inbound pass from the far sideline inside to forward Anisha George who hit a layup to give North Texas a 64-63 advantage with 1.7 seconds remaining.

Tech called a timeout to advance the basketball

into the front court and then lobbed a pass into the post where Dixon came up with the loose basketball and drew a foul with 0.4 seconds to play. Trailing by one, Dixon missed the first but hit the second to send the game into overtime.

North Texas (8-10, 2-4) jumped out to a 68-64 lead in the overtime period as the Mean Green hit a pay of layups and got defensive stops on the other end.

“I really thought we got off to a poor start in the overtime period,” said Stoehr. “We had two bad possessions defensively where we gave up layups and two empty offensive possessions. So once again we found ourselves playing from behind.

“I thought we competed but we needed more people to step up and produce today. We just needed one more person offensively besides Dixon. Whether that was another guard or a post, but we struggled offensively. All we know to do is to continue to coach them and teach them and to work to get better. That's what we are going to do.”

The game saw 11 ties and 12 lead changes.

George led North Texas with 22 points and nine rebounds, hitting 10-of-12 field goals in the game. N'Yah Boyd added 15 points.

Keiunna Walker added 11 points for Tech.

The Lady Techsters return to action Thursday when they host Middle Tennessee at 6:30 p.m.