North Texas forces deciding game in CBI tournament finals

North Texas used a pair of double-digit scoring runs Wednesday to put away San Francisco 69-55 and force a deciding third game in the series finals of the 11th annual College Basketball Invitational tournament.

North Texas (19-18) will host the CBI finale at 6 p.m. Friday in the Super Pit in Denton. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

The Mean Green erased a tie at 16 with an 11-0 run early in the first half. San Francisco (22-16) rallied to even the score at 31 with 3:46 before intermission. But the Dons wouldn't score for the next 8 1/2 minutes as UNT built its lead back to 43-31.

San Francisco, which won the first game in the best-of-3 series 72-62 at home on Monday, never threatened again as its five-game win streak ended.

Mean Green junior guard Jorden Duffey, whose regular season high was 12 points, had 15 to lead all scorers and a game-high nine rebounds. He has averaged 18.6 points in the five-game CBI run.

UTA, which has only two seniors on its roster — neither of whom played Wednesday — also had double figure scoring from regular-season leader Roosevelt Smart with 13, Zachary Simmons with 12, and 10 from Tope Arikawe.

North Texas has its most wins in six seasons and its first postseason wins in program history after double-digit victories over South Dakota, Mercer and Jacksonville State got the team to the CBI finals. This all comes in the first year under coach Grant McCasland, who grew up in Irving and played at Baylor.

This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 9:56 PM with the headline "North Texas forces deciding game in CBI tournament finals."