DENVER—Straying from their hallmarks of success cost the Denver Pioneers their last time out. They rediscovered their recipe for winning on Saturday.
Brian Stafford scored 21 points and Denver, leaning on solid defense and strong bench play, bounced back from its only conference loss of the season to beat North Texas 80-67.
Chris Udofia added 15 points and Chase Hallam and Tyler Thalken 13 each for Denver (11-10, 7-1 Sun Belt). The Pioneers had come off a 59-49 loss at Middle Tennessee that snapped an eight-game winning streak.
“That loss kind of hurt,” Stafford said. “It was a hard-fought game, but we didn’t really play well. We kind of went away from our core principles, went away from the way were supposed to be playing and didn’t play well together. It was just good to come out and put that one behind us and play well against a tough opponent, because we needed to win this one.”
Denver coach Joe Scott said he saw a silver lining in the Middle Tennessee loss.
“I was hoping that game would sort of help us and I think we came out today and showed that it did,” Scott said. “I think that’s a sign of a growing team, a team that’s growing up. They didn’t hang their heads. We actually learned from it. We just played solid, good basketball together, not one guy saying, ‘I’m going to do it.’ We shared the ball extremely well.”
Denver beat North Texas for the first time in the past six meetings between the schools to extend its lead over the second-place Mean Green (16-6, 5-4) in the conference’s West Division to 2 1/2 games.
Josh White led North Texas with 15 points, and George Odufuwa had 14 points to go with his 11 rebounds.
But Denver’s bench outscored North Texas’ 27-9, and the Pioneers had 18 points off the Mean Green’s 12 turnovers. Denver had just six turnovers, leading to five points for North Texas.
“We shot 68 percent in the first half but we still went in down at the half,” North Texas coach Johnny Jones said. “I attribute that to the poise that Denver had and how they played defensively. When they got turnovers because of the good basketball team they are, they wound up scoring from those turnovers.”
The Pioneers took control with the help of back-to-back 3-pointers from Stafford and Hallam, which started an 8-0 run that made the score 63-49 with 7:05 remaining.
The Mean Green pulled to within 10 points after a 3-pointer by Tristan Thompson and a pair of free throws by White, but Denver rebuilt its lead to 76-62 with 2:19 left behind Hallam’s driving layup and a 3-pointer by Stafford.
North Texas didn’t get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Trevor Noonan hit a pair of 3-pointers and drove for a layup in the final four minutes of the first half, helping the Pioneers take a 39-34 lead at the break.
The Mean Green opened up an early eight-point lead before Denver began cutting into the advantage. The Pioneers pulled into a tie at 23-all on Stafford’s driving layup and moved in front when Thalken and Stafford hit 3-pointers around a basket by North Texas’ Shannon Shorter.
