It was a scary few minutes for the Mean Green fans of North Texas as the 4 seed Purdue Boilermakers forced overtime. But the 13 seed team from Denton persevered as they crushed Purdue in the extra period to win 78-69 to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
It was a game that North Texas was in control for most of the time. Other than the start when Purdue was up 3-2, North Texas wasn’t behind for the rest of the game. At one point, the Mean Green was up by 11, as four of the starting five scored double digit points.
Purdue didn’t give up though and by the end of the game had clawed back. The colossal dunk by Trevion Williams with less than four minutes left helped propel the Boilermakers to maybe completing the comeback.
Trevion Williams with the powerful jam for Purdue! pic.twitter.com/Lgbw3hPKoB
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) March 20, 2021
Purdue got it to overtime but there was just one problem, Purdue stopped scoring. In an OT period that would help disprove the concept of momentum having an effect, North Texas put things into another gear and pulled away. Starting with a three from Thomas Bell, North Texas took advantage of Purdue misses and getting offensive rebounds to quickly get a game high 12 point lead. Purdue eventually got their first points with just 28 seconds left but it was too little, too late and North Texas got the nine point win.
NORTH TEXAS GETS ITS FIRST-EVER NCAA TOURNAMENT WIN!
(13) @MeanGreenMBB UPSETS (4) Purdue in OT #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/05BIYveBqd
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2021
North Texas will play the winner of the 5/12 matchup between Villanova and Winthrop. There has already been a 12 seed beating a 5 as Oregon State defeated Tennessee so while Villanova may breathe a sigh of relief at that aspect, Winthrop will want to keep the trend going.
