The unpleasant sensation in the pit of North Texas head coach Shanice Stephens’ stomach had yet to subside Monday afternoon, a little more than 24 hours after the Mean Green suffered through a game unlike almost any other in program history.

UNT got off to a good start against Sun Belt Conference power Middle Tennessee on Sunday, only to fall apart in 113-58 drubbing at the hands of the Blue Raiders. The loss ranked among the worst performances ever for UNT.

The Mean Green’s 55-point margin of defeat ties for the third worst in school history, while the 113 points UNT gave up ranks second only to the 115 it gave up in the first game in program history, a 115-66 loss to Baylor in 1976.

The loss was the Mean Green’s worst since suffering a 94-33 thrashing at the hands of Northeast Louisiana on Feb. 26, 1985.

“I am still working on how we are going to recover from this,” Stephens said. “I have an empty feeling in my stomach from that display. It’s a sad time. Today is a day of mourning. Tomorrow will be a day to pick it back up.”

UNT got off to a solid start and led 11-10 before MTSU ripped off 26-0 run. The Blue Raiders continued to pour it on the rest of the game.

MTSU led 62-29 at halftime and reached the 100-point mark when Brandi Brown hit a 3-pointer with 4:50 still left in the second half.

The Blue Raiders pulled their starters a short time later.

MTSU shot a whopping 63.6 percent from the field, went 13-of-25 from 3-point range and finished with a 40-22 edge in rebounds.

Senior guard Tricia Lee scored a career-high 29 points, but it wasn’t enough to offset 28 UNT turn-overs.

“It was awful,” Stephens said. “We didn’t stick with the game plan or play hard and the officiating was suspect. It was a culmination of Middle Tennes-see playing well and us playing horrible. It was an awful display of basketball.”

Stephens and her players attributed their troubles to turnovers and other mistakes, including leaving MTSU’s three-point shooters open on the perimeter. The Mean Green’s focus was keeping the ball away from Alysha Clark, who leads the nation in scoring.

Clark took only 14 shots, but hit 12 of them on the way to scoring a game-high 30 points. Brown went 6-for-9 from three-point range and scored 21 points, while Anne Marie Lanning went 5-for-7 from deep and had 17 points.

The experience was unlike anything UNT’s players have endured in a season that has included a couple of other lopsided losses. Oklahoma State beat the Mean Green by 26, while MTSU beat UNT by 20 in the teams’ first meeting.

UNT came into the game with momentum after winning two straight, but left with a bafflingly bad loss. The Mean Green will look to recover Wednesday in a home game against Louisiana-Monroe.

“I have never lost that bad in my life,” junior guard Brittney James said. “To come to this level and lose that bad is unreal to me. We should have come with a better attitude and intensity. I can’t say we didn’t try. We did, but the turnovers killed us. They took advantage of every one of them.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .