Denver Pioneers vs North Texas Mean Green Basketball Recap
Denver took a commanding lead in the Sun Belt’s West Division with an impressive 80-67 home win Saturday over defending champion North Texas, rallying from an early 11-3 deficit to defeat a team that had won five straight against the Pioneers.
“This is a team that’s been on top of our league for the past few years,” said junior guard Brian Stafford, who led Denver with 21 points. “It feels good to come out and play well against a really good team, and get the win here at home. It’s big for us.”
Denver’s 80 points, fueled by a phenomenal offensive efficiency mark of 1.382 points per possession, were the most that the slow-paced, Princeton-style team has scored all season. The Pioneers spread the wealth around, with five players in double figures: in addition to Stafford, freshman phenom Chris Udofia scored 15 (including a thunderous dunk in the final minute to push Denver to the 80-point mark), Chase Hallam and Tyler Thalken had 13 apiece, and Trevor Noonan added 10.
“It is important for us to get contributions from everyone, and that happened across the board today,” said Coach Joe Scott, echoing a theme of recent weeks as increased contributions have helped Denver win 9 out of its last 10 games after a 2-9 start.
The win improved Denver’s conference record to 7-1, and thanks to Arkansas State’s win a few hours later at Arkansas-Little Rock, the Pioneers now lead by three games in the loss column over their nearest divisional competitors in the SBC West. Denver is also effectively tied for the overall Sun Belt lead with East Division leader Florida Atlantic (8-1), which dropped its first league game of the season Saturday to Western Kentucky.
To get to that point, Denver had to rally from a nightmarish start against its nemesis of recent years. In the game’s opening minutes, Denver’s defense could not stop the Mean Green, and its offense couldn’t get anything going. Prior to the first TV timeout at the 15:10 mark, Denver went 1 of 4 from the field — all from 3-point range — with 3 turnovers. North Texas led 11-3.
But Denver quickly calmed down after the timeout. The Pioneers began running their offense more effectively and methodically, started defending North Texas better, and stopped throwing the ball away: they would commit just three more turnovers the entire rest of the game, and would win the points-off-turnovers battle, 18-5.
Within two minutes after that first TV timeout, UNT’s lead was 11-9; within six minutes, the game was tied; and within eight minutes, Denver had taken the lead, which it would not relinquish.
“We’ve shown a lot of poise by not letting those bad stretches get to us the last few games,” said Stafford. “I think we did a good job of that again tonight by responding to that good run they started out with, and playing well the rest of the game.”
Stafford said the win was especially important in the wake of Denver’s first conference loss of the season a week earlier, a disappointing 59-49 defeat at Middle Tennessee, in which the Pioneers committed 20 turnovers. “That loss kind of hurt, because it was a hard-fought game but we didn’t really play well,” Stafford said. “We went away from our core principles, went away from the way we were supposed to be playing, and didn’t play well together. So it was good to come out and put that one behind us, and play well against a tough opponent.
“We needed to win this one,” Stafford added.
The loss dropped North Texas to 5-4 in conference and 16-6 overall. The Mean Green still boast the Sun Belt’s second-highest RPI rating at #129 (Denver, despite its gaudy league record, remains mired in the 200s), but their bid for another division title now appears to be a longshot.
After the game, UNT head coach Johnny Jones told the Denton Record-Chronicle he was frustrated with his team’s play on defense. “It’s my job to find five guys who are committed enough to get stops,” he said. “It’s late in the game and important for us to do it pretty quick.”
Jones also praised the Pioneers: “We played a team tonight that is playing like a 7-1 [team] – a first-place team. They are playing the best on the West side.”
Brendan Loy
You can read much more about this game, and the Denver Pioneers’ season, at my DU blog, Pioneer Pulse:
Leave your response!