DENTON, Texas (Interstat) — Izaiyah Nelson scored 17 points and South Florida overcame a sluggish start with a dominant second half to edge North Texas 74-70 in an American Athletic Conference men’s basketball game Wednesday night at North Texas Coliseum.

The Bulls, who trailed by five at halftime, outscored the Mean Green 49-40 after the break to snap a two-game skid and improve to 9-6 overall. North Texas fell to 10-6.

The game’s decisive stretch came late in the second half with South Florida clinging to a narrow lead. After North Texas’ David Terrell hit a driving layup to pull the Mean Green within 64-62 with 2:21 remaining, Nelson answered with a layup of his own. Following a North Texas miss, Nelson struck again, converting a layup while being fouled by Dylan Arnett. He completed the three-point play at the free-throw line with 2:40 left, pushing the Bulls’ advantage to 67-62.

North Texas refused to fold. Cole Franklin buried a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to cut the deficit to 67-65. After a South Florida timeout, Nelson was fouled and made two critical free throws to restore a four-point cushion. Je’Shawn Stevenson countered with a deep 3-pointer for North Texas with six seconds remaining, slicing the lead to 70-68.

South Florida’s Isaiah Jones was then fouled on the ensuing inbounds play and calmly sank both free throws with 5.1 seconds on the clock. Stevenson’s potential game-tying 3-point attempt missed, and CJ Brown secured the defensive rebound for South Florida. Brown then found Nelson for a clinching dunk with 1.3 seconds left to seal the victory.

The first half was a struggle for the visiting Bulls, who committed 12 turnovers and shot poorly from the field. North Texas, led by Stevenson’s 13 first-half points, built a 30-25 lead at intermission by capitalizing on South Florida’s mistakes.

The second half saw a complete reversal. South Florida cleaned up its ball-handling and found an offensive rhythm, shooting 58% from the field after halftime. Nelson, a 6-foot-10 forward from Marietta, Georgia, was central to the surge, scoring 13 of his points in the final 20 minutes. He also added three steals and an assist in 31 minutes.

Stevenson led all scorers with 21 points for North Texas, adding two assists and three steals. Terrell, from Dallas, contributed 17 points, two assists, two steals and a block. Arnett added 12 points and two blocks for the Mean Green.

For South Florida, Joseph Pinion of Morrilton, Arkansas, scored 14 points, while CJ Brown and Josh Omojafo each added 11. Brown also had two assists and a block. Daimion Collins provided a key spark off the bench with nine points and two blocks in just 10 minutes of action.

The game was a statistical upset according to predictive metrics. Interstat’s ELO system gave North Texas an 82.2% probability to win, though South Florida closed as a 4.5-point favorite in the betting markets. The combined score of 144 points fell just under the pregame over/under line of 143.5.

A crowd of 2,645 watched at North Texas Coliseum.

South Florida, which lost a double-overtime thriller to UAB in its previous outing, will look to build momentum when it travels to face Tulsa on Saturday. North Texas, which had its three-game winning streak snapped, hits the road for its next contest at Wichita State on Sunday.