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UNT “always says” that the tougher team wins, and the Mean Green were undoubtedly the more physical team in the first 20 minutes of basketball.

Mike Boynton took notice of this too.

“They (UNT) were really, really physical,” said Boynton on what give the Cowboys trouble in the first half. “We failed to play through that physicality.”

Down 27-17, the Cowboys came out ready to make a run.

Tylor Perry, Mean Green guard and 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year, expected Boynton’s team to come out swinging.

“We knew OSU was gonna make a run there,” Perry said. “They’re a Big 12 team, they’re good.”

In just over five minutes of second half play, the Cowboys scored 18 points, more than the entirety of the first half.

The Cowboys started playing at their desired place, unlike the first half. The imposing, physical Mean Green defense started taking jabs from the OSU offense.

Moussa Cisse and Tyreek Smith posed trouble for the Mean Green on the glass, as they were without Abou Ousmane, their star forward that at 6’10” is the tallest listed player on their roster.

Perry said that it didn’t just take a couple of players to stop them from dominating the rebounding department, but the whole roster.

“Shoutout to Moussa (Cisse) and Tyreek (Smith),” Perry said. “Two very good bigs in this league and they’re a handful. It took a team to stop them.”

After outscoring the Mean Green 38-31, the Cowboys had Asberry at the free throw line with 20 seconds remaining in regulation. Following his two misses, five more minutes of basketball was next.

In overtime, Perry scored five of the Mean Green’s 10 points, which included a deep three-pointer and two game-sealing free throws.

That’s what a player of his caliber does. “Tonight, he (Perry) carried his team like the MVP of the conference should,” Boynton said. “My hats off to him.”

Although the Cowboys failed to make the Big Dance, they were looking toward the NIT Semifinals and Championship in Las Vegas as a successful way to put a bow on the season.

Instead, they came up short, finishing the season with a 20-16 record. “We got the game going in our pace, we just were never able to sustain it,” Boynton said.