ALTHOUGH March Madness is taking a break heading into the Sweet 16 stage, there is still plenty of college basketball to enjoy, including the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which contains sides that missed out on NCAA selection.

On Wednesday’s day of action, the North Texas Mean Green held on in overtime to produce a thrilling six-point triumph over the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gallagher-Iba Arena in an exciting match.

The Mean Green came into the match in much better form (a record of 28-7 in comparison to Oklahoma State’s 20-15), but faced a tough challenge from a determined Cowboys side. However, North Texas proved too classy in extra time and broke away to advance past the quarterfinal matchup.

It was a low scoring first half, with just a combined total of 41 points scored between the two sides. However, defence dropped off and scoring lifted in the second half of regular play. A scoring burst from the Cowboys pushed them back into the game as both teams had a bit of a scoring trouble to end regulation. The final bucket was a three-pointer from Oklahoma State’s Woody Newton, tying up proceedings with just over a minute to play.

Both sides had opportunities to score the match-winning bucket in the last 60 seconds of play, but could not do so and the match headed to OT.

In extra time, it was the combination of Kai Huntsberry and Tylor Perry that was the difference for the Mean Green, with the duo completely taking over when the game was on the line. Huntsberry nailed a big three-pointer to kick off his side’s overtime experience, and the pair scored all of North Texas’ points in OT, as the team snuck away to a 65-59 triumph.

Perry was the match’s leading scorer with 23 points in 43 minutes of play. While it was not his most accurate performance from the field, the guard worked his way into the game and nailed the shots when they mattered. Much of his offence came from the free throw line, where he went a perfect 6/6.

Five of Huntsberry’s 11 points came in overtime, stepping up in crunch time for a defining performance, while Moulaye Sissoko delivered an impressive double-double of 12 points (6/9 FG) and 15 rebounds, with plenty of his points generated by the big man’s offensive rebounds (eight for the match).

For the Cowboys, Moussa Cisse went a perfect 6/6 from the field to register 13 points to go with seven rebounds, while Caleb Asberry overcame some inaccurate shooting to finish with a team-high 14 points.