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UNT Dallas

Photo Recap MBB vs. LCU Senior Day
62
Louisiana Christian LCU 7-21, 5-17
82
Winner UNT Dallas UNTD 11-15, 10-12
Louisiana Christian LCU
7-21, 5-17
62
Final
82
UNT Dallas UNTD
11-15, 10-12
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Louisiana Christian LCU 30 32 62
UNT Dallas UNTD 39 43 82

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | nathanyacovissi

UNTD Men's Hoops Bounceback with a Win on Senior Day

CEDAR HILL, Texas – The University of North Texas at Dallas men's basketball team handled business with an 82-62 victory over Louisiana Christian University to finish the regular season in the W column and send the fans home happy on "Senior Day" at Trinity Leadership. A unique starting five featured each senior athlete: Demaryon Thornton Chicago, Ill.), Orion Virden (Pine Bluff Ark.), Julius Morris (Houston, Texas), DaRyan Williams (Austin, Texas), and Greg Crawford (Houston, Texas) were part of the starting five and had their own supporting contingents to watch an exciting final home game.
 
The group was recognized prior to the game as part of the UNT Dallas Athletics Senior Day presentation.
 
The Trailblazers complete the regular season at 11-15 overall and 10-12 in conference play for seventh place in the RRAC standings. (North American is not eligible for the conference tournament). LCU ends its season 7-21 and 5-17.
 
UNT Dallas tied last season's number of conference wins with 10. The program in its first year with the RRAC qualifies for its highest seed in a conference postseason as the No. 6 Seed. This is the third postseason tournament for the Trailblazers as they made the Sooner Athletic Conference as the No. 10 Seed (2021-22) and No. 8 Seed (2024-25).
 
UNT Dallas will play at No. 3 Seed Xavier University of Louisiana on Wednesday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. RRAC Men's Basketball Tournament Central



Virden continues his strong resurgence since debuting this semester with the Trailblazers by scoring a season-high 17 points and breaking double figures in five straight games. Virden was 6-of-10 overall and 5-of-9 from the three-point arc.
 
Sedric Curry Jr. (Baton Rouge, La.) scored 15 points and was one-off his season-high performance. It was his sixth game to surpass double figures in scoring, as he went 7-of-11 from the field.
 
Thornton had 11 points with a trio of three-pointers for nine points and was perfect at the free throw line for his remaining pair. The senior guard tied personal-best marks with six rebounds and five assists. He had five assists at Oklahoma City (12/10/22) and six rebounds against Paul Quinn (11/2/21).
 
Greg Crawford (Houston, Texas) just missed his ninth double-double with nine points and a game-high 14 rebounds. This was Crawfords 10th game to eclipse 10 boards and he improved his national ranking to tied for fifth with a 10.4-clip. Crawford has exactly 400 points this season and has 892 for his UNTD career.
 
Williams added nine boards, Morris had seven points that tied what Anthony Hunter (Fort Worth, Texas) had from the bench. Eli Taylor (Elizabeth, N.J.) dished a personal-best seven assists.

 

The Trailblazers tied a season-high 21 assists a third time, with each being games in 2026. They also achieved the feat at Southwest (1/3) and against Texas College (1/8).
 
The team shot 48.3 percent from the field, including 50 percent in the second half. UNT Dallas connected on six trifectas per stanza and had a season-high 12 and were successful at 50 percentiles. The Trailblazers went 14-for-19 at the free throw line.
 
UNT Dallas held a 44-26 edge on rebounding and turned the ball over 11 times compared to five by the Wildcats. The 11 turnovers were one shy of the team's 10 committed in a win against Our Lady of the Lake. The Trailblazers led 9-2 on second chance points and 9-4 on points off turnovers. There was a 28-16 edge on points in paint with the home team posting 14 points-per-half. The Trailblazers scored all 14 points on the fastbreak in the game during the second stanza.
 
LCU tied the game twice, but the Trailblazers were never behind in this contest. The home side jumped out to a six point lead with a quartet of free throws by Crawford that bookend a Morris Layup. The Wildcats got on the board with a triple and a field goal followed to make it 6-5. A barrage of trifectas by both sides saw the Trailblazers maintain a four-point spread (12-8). It remained back-and-forth throughout the midway point as a slim lead was managed by UNT Dallas.
 
With the score knotted at 16 at 10:21, the next five points came from Curry Jr. The Wildcats countered and leveled the score at 23 with 6:17 left before intermission before two three pointers by Virden pushed the UNTD lead to six. Virden had 12 points in the first half. Virden drilled his third three-pointer in a row for the Trailblazers and a trey by Morris capped a strong opening frame to make it 39-30 at intermission. The Trailblazers closed the last 5:51 minutes on a 16-7 run with four threes.
 
UNT Dallas jumped out to a 10-point lead two and a half minutes into the second half. The Wildcats continued to stay within striking distance as a three by Sam Wren cut the gap to six points (46-40) at 14:04. A three by Bryce Weinmunson cut the score to a point (48-47) with 11 minutes remaining.
 
Weinmunson led all players with 20 points. Drew Tebbe added 15 and Justice Kelly almost had a double-double with 11 points and nine boards.
 
A layup by Virden and open trey in the left corner by the Trailblazers bench from Hunter gave some breathing room over the next minute. LCU's Jalani Bell had a three cut the margin in half. A Virden trey was sandwiched between layups by Taylor that secured a seven-point string to open a double-digit lead, again (60-50). With five minutes left, Tebbe made a jumper to create a two-possession game (62-56). Brooks Anderson (Waco, Texas) buried his only shot attempts of the game, which both were three-pointers and sparked a 20-4 run that carried UNT Dallas out on a high note for the home crowd. Demaryon Thornton followed with five points including a three. The longest tenured player capped his senior day performance when he lined up a triple to extend the lead to 20 points (80-60) with 1:10 left. Crawford had two free throws in that run and Curry Jr. got a fastbreak layup that looked like a potential dunk. Two plays after that the tallest active player this game was able to get an exciting dunk that opened the widest gap of the game at 22 points and gave an exclamation mark on a fun contest.
 
The Trailblazers hope this is just the beginning of a fun stretch.
 
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