Box Score DENTON, Texas ? University of New Orleans senior guard Bo McCalebb will one day look back on Jan. 17, 2008 as one of the more memorable nights of his incredible collegiate career, and he'll have plenty of reasons to do so.
The New Orleans native became the Sun Belt Conference's all-time leading scorer on a night that saw the Privateers play one of their best games in recent memory as UNO cruised past North Texas 83-61 on Thursday at the Super Pit.
McCalebb scored a game-high 23 points and surpassed South Florida's Charlie Bradley for the league's all-time scoring mark to help the Privateers (13-5, 3-3 Sun Belt) pick up their first SBC road win of the year. He was 8-of-15 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
McCalebb, now with 2,332 career points, broke the record with a free throw with 15:00 left in the second half. He only had six points in the first half before erupting for 17 in the final stanza.
He was honored with a commemorative basketball following a timeout with 11:33 to play.
“I think he was pressing a little bit in the first half but he really settled down,” said UNO head coach Joe Pasternack. “He's the toughest competitor I've ever been around.”
Kyndall Dykes had 22 points, and Shaun Reynolds added 13. Jaroslav Tyrna came off the bench with 10 points, including eight in the first half.
The 22-point margin marked UNO's largest victory in an SBC road game since defeating Denver 66-44 on Feb. 17, 2000.
UNO picked up its fifth straight win over North Texas and won in Denton for the third straight season.
Collin Dennis led the Mean Green (12-5, 3-3) with 17 points, while Quincy Williams and Dez Willingham each had 14. North Texas lost at home for the first time in 10 tries this season.
The Privateers were missing senior guard James Parlow, who was nursing a sprained ankle. In his place, UNO changed its lineup with post players Asrangue Souleymane and Tyrna seeing 21 minutes of action each.
Souleymane responded with a team-high seven rebounds, helping UNO stay even with North Texas 36-36 on the glass. The Mean Green entered the game as the top rebounding team in the Sun Belt.
“We were getting killed on the boards and we had to make some adjustments,” Pasternack said. “We decided to go big and it helped us out tonight. To hold this team to 32 percent (shooting) was just a magnificent job by our guys.”
McCalebb's record-breaking free throw started a 19-4 run that put the game away. UNO led by as many as 29 late in the game. The Privateers shot 50 percent from the field and held North Texas to just 32 percent.
UNO will travel to Middle Tennessee for a 6 p.m. matchup on Saturday. The game will be televised live on Cox Sports Television in the metro New Orleans area.
