BOISE, Idaho -- There were several reasons why North Texas let a winnable basketball game slip from its grasp on Saturday night, but junior guard Josh White had no problem pinning the biggest factor.

“Down the stretch, we didn’t play with any toughness,” White said.

The Mean Green made too many unforced errors during Boise State’s decisive late-game charge en route to succumbing to the Broncos 79-73 at Taco Bell Arena.

White scored a game-high 23 points but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficiencies -- 18 turnovers and 6-of-12 free-throw shooting. UNT led by five points with under 10 minutes to play but fell behind for good when Boise State put together an 11-2 run to take an eight-point lead with 4:05 left.

It was an outcome UNT (3-2) will look back on and feel it let get away.

“We had some opportunities -- being up five points, we needed to take care of the basketball and we had too many turnovers,” UNT coach Johnny Jones said. “We’ll look back and learn from this and grow from the experience.”

UNT’s last lead was 60-59 on White’s driving hoop with 6:38 remaining. Anthony Thomas and Robert Arnold responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to put Boise State (4-2) ahead to stay. Thomas finished the run with a hoop to leave UNT facing a 70-62 deficit.

The Mean Green pulled within 76-73 on Jacob Holmen’s 3-pointer with 27.5 seconds left but the Broncos broke the full-court press and Arnold (17 points) broke free for an easy dunk with 20 seconds left to end the suspense.

Early foul trouble on rebounding machine George Odufuwa didn’t help matters.

Odufuwa, averaging 13.3 rebounds entering the contest, played just three minutes in the first half after drawing three quick fouls. Boise State took advantage of his absence by grabbing eight offensive rebounds in the first half and Broncos center Kurt Cunningham prospered, finishing with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Odufuwa finished with just five points and four rebounds -- the first time he failed to score in double figures this season.

“That hurt us a lot,” White said. “He’s a big key to our team. Three fouls in the first half -- that really killed us.”

Still, UNT trailed by just one point at halftime as White scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. White, who moved into 30^th place in school history with 850 points, had scored just four points in each of the previous two games while making just 1-of-11 shots.

“He played excellent,” Jones said. “He played hard on both ends of the floor. I thought Josh shot the ball extremely well.”

The lack of free-throw attempts was surprising since the Mean Green were averaging 34 attempts per game.

Plus, it’s hard to win a road game with 18 turnovers.

“They’re a good team,” said White, “but we had too many turnovers to win tonight.

Boise State 79, North Texas 73

NORTH TEXAS (3-2) -- Odufuwa 2-4 1-2 5, Tramiel 5-8 2-5 14, White 9-16 2-2 23, Thompson 2-7 1-2 7, Thomas 3-11 0-0 7, Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Knox 2-2 0-0 4, Mangrum 2-3 0-1 4, Shorter 0-2 0-0 0, Holmen 3-5 0-0 7, Spencer 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 29-62 6-12 73.

BOISE ST. (4-2) -- Okoye 5-10 3-4 13, Arnold 6-12 4-5 17, Cunningham 7-8 3-3 17, Perryman 2-4 1-2 5, Anderson 0-5 1-2 1, Montreal 2-7 2-2 7, Thomas 3-7 0-0 8, Noonan 3-7 2-2 11, Moritz 0-2 0-2 0. Totals 28-62 16-22 79.

Halftime--Boise St. 38-37. 3-Point Goals--North Texas 9-22 (White 3-7, Tramiel 2-3, Thompson 2-4, Holmen 1-1, Thomas 1-6, Williams 0-1), Boise St. 7-11 (Noonan 3-4, Thomas 2-3, Montreal 1-1, Arnold 1-2, Anderson 0-1). Fouled Out--None. Rebounds--North Texas 35 (Spencer 8), Boise St. 37 (Cunningham, Okoye 8). Assists--North Texas 15 (White 6), Boise St. 17 (Anderson 5). Total Fouls--North Texas 14, Boise St. 13. A--2,650.