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Men’s basketball begins February with an 11-10 overall record and 7-1 in Sun Belt Conference play, and heads in the right direction, following its biggest win over defending SBC champion North Texas, 80-67.
“We finished the month the right way, which is important for us,” said head coach Joe Scott. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position heading into February, and we’ll see what that does for us.”
With the win, the Pioneers extended their lead in the West Division to two and a half games over the Mean Green, while establishing a two-game lead over the next closest team, Arkansas State.
Denver has won nine of its last 10 games dating back to Dec. 18 and bounced back from its only conference loss of the season this past weekend with an impressive win against North Texas (16-6, 5-4), a team that made the NCAA tournament in 2010.
“Our theme is ‘North Texas is the best team in the league,'” Scott said earlier in the week when asked about leading UNT in the conference standings.
The defending league champs got off to a quick start, jumping out to an early 11-3 lead, but DU rallied and tied the game at 21 with under 10 to play in the first half.
Then junior guard Brian Stafford converted a backdoor pass for an easy layup and sophomore Tyler Thalken drained a three-pointer to give the Pioneers a 26-23 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the game.
Despite three turnovers in the first four minutes of the game, the Pioneers were able to buckle down and only turned the ball over twice in the second half.
“They got off to a good start, and we had three turnovers in the first four minutes and then we had a timeout and we came out of that huddle and from that moment on we played pretty well,” said Scott. “We finished the half well, but most importantly we played extremely well the entire 20 minutes in the second half.”
In addition to limiting their own turnovers, Denver was able to cause 12 turnovers and turn them into transition seven baskets, dominating the points-off turnovers advantage 14-0.
“When we turn them over and we can capitalize, then that gives us a great opportunity,” said Scott of the turnover difference on Saturday. “It’s always been critical for us to take care of the basketball and play good defense; we had three turnovers in the last 37 minutes of the game, which is pretty good. We have proven when we take care of the ball and execute well, then we can get good shots and then our guys get really comfortable and begin playing really good basketball.”
The Pioneers dominated on the defensive end limiting North Texas’ high-octane offense, which was No. 18 in the nation in scoring, averaging over 79 points per game. However, it was the team’s ability to split the scoring responsibilities on the offensive end that proved to the difference.
Stafford led all scorers with 21 points as the Pioneers had five players finish in double figures.
In addition, Denver went off from the three-point range, knocking 12 of 26 shots (46.2 percent) from behind the arc with four players hitting multiple three-pointers.
“It is important for us to get contributions from everyone, and that happened across the board,” said Scott.
Senior forward Andrew Hooper missed the game with a concussion, but the Pioneers found help off the bench in the form of redshirt sophomore Trevor Noonan and freshman Chris Udofia.
Noonan finished with 10 points and was crucial to the first half resurgence, coming in for starter Justin Coughlin, and replacing Udofia who had been called for two fouls.
Udofia surged in the second half off the bench, finishing with 15 points, 8 rebounds and a career-high five assists.
“I’m not a big believer in who starts, I’m a big believer in ‘You get your time, you get your opportunities and you make your contributions,'” said Scott. “Trevor and Chris did a nice job for us off the bench. Guys have got to step up and I think they responded; and that’s critical of this team, because they stepped up for their teammates.”
Thalken and sophomore guard Chase Hallam each finished with 13 points, converting on 5 of 8 attempts from behind the arc.
“Thalken came out and gave us great minutes tonight,” said Scott. “And Chase Hallam continues to develop into the lead guard that we need him to be.”
Scott says the team has erased its 1-5 record in November, but can’t afford to dwell on what they accomplished in January, insisting that looking ahead is all his team can do with the crucial months of February and March looming.
“November is a distant memory because of what our guys have done, but with that being said, nothing was ever won half way through a league season; we’ve got nothing but tough games coming up,” said Scott. “We have to keep improving, keep getting better and keep our eyes on the prize.”
In their next three games, the Pioneers take on Arkansas Little-Rock (4-4), Arkansas State (6-4) and Florida Atlantic (8-1), beginning with a road contest tonight against the Trojans.
