Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 There are times when the business of history-making takes time and more than a little patience. Such was the case Thursday (Nov. 18) evening at the Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship gym as the University of North Texas at Dallas women waited to play their first-ever Sooner Athletic Conference basketball game.  They waited...and waited.

The visiting University of Science and Art Oklahoma had called to notify officials that a monumental traffic snarl would make it impossible for its team bus to reach the game site in time for the scheduled 5 p.m. tip-off.  Thus, the start of the game was delayed an hour.

Once it finally got underway, the unbeaten Trailblazers led from start to finish en route to a 62-59 victory, their sixth in a row in the young season. 

"I'm very proud of our young ladies," a pleased Coach Rodney Belcher said. "They played hard and never quit. I'm elated to win our first ever conference game in history against an excellent team."

For a time, it looks like it might be easy work.  With an aggressive defense that shut out the middle for much of the first period, UNTD jumped out to a 10-point lead with 4:18 remaining in the quarter.   And a 3-pointer by guard Brook Lopez widened the margin to 21-8 before the Drovers began to connect on their shots.

A scoreless four minutes by the Trailblazers in the early stages of the second period allowed USAO to climb back into contention as it narrowed the gap to 24-19. By early in the third, the Drovers had sliced the UNTD advantage to just two, 36-34.

Mykayla Dumas, the Trailblazers' leading scorer for the night with 18 points, hit on a couple of short set shots with just over five minutes remaining to give UNTD a 56-47 lead that briefly looked as if it had settled the issue.  But the Drovers connected with a couple of 3-pointers and slimmed the margin to a single point (58-57) with two minutes to play.


Only when ShanDrea Yeldell, who contributed 16 points for the evening, scored with just five seconds left was the issue finally settled. She and her teammates were 6-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.  Historic.

The Trailblazer men will have to wait to celebrate their first Sooner Athletic Conference win.

Determined to live or die by a long-range shooting game, the visiting Drovers scored a 73-68 victory over Coach Josh Howard's squad.

Much like the UNTD women earlier, the hosts jumped into a quick and sizable lead early, opening  the margin to double figures (19-9) midway through the first half Then, the Drovers began to connect and took over the game's pace. By intermission, they held a 39-33 advantage.

Throughout the second half. the Trailblazers fought back and with 4:50 remaining, actually took a 60-58 lead before the Drovers again assumed command.

For the night, forward Jevon Burton led the Trailblazers scoring with 14, followed by Hysheam Weston's 12 and Donovan Deal's 12.

Sunday (Nov. 21), both UNTD teams will visit Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth for a doubleheader. The women will play at 2 p.m., the men at four. Assuming, of course, there are no delays.