Box Score HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Senior guard Nate Rohnert (Parker, Colo.) scored a team-high 16 points, pulled down nine rebounds and dished out seven assists, but the No. 6-seeded University of Denver men's basketball team fell 63-56 to No. 2-seeded North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Semifinals in Summit Arena on Monday night.
The Pioneers (19-13) shot just 38.9 percent (21-of-54) from the field, and the Mean Green (23-8) outrebounded Denver 36-27.
"North Texas deserves all the credit for winning this game. They are a very good team, and the two best teams in the Sun Belt will be playing for the title tomorrow," head coach Joe Scott said. "We fought and clawed our way back, but we just didn't finish some offensive possessions when we needed to."
North Texas led by as many as 10 points, but the Pioneers cut the deficit to one point with 6:52 remaining in the game, following an 8-2 run. However, North Texas responded with an 11-1 run over the following 5:49 to stretch the lead.
Freshman guard Chase Hallam (Mesquite, Texas) hit a three-pointer with 59 seconds left, and sophomore forward Justin Coughlin (Yuma, Colo.) hit a pair of free throws with 31 seconds to go, but North Texas sealed the game with free throws down the stretch.
Hallam added 13 points for the Pioneers, while sophomore guard Brian Stafford (Walnut Creek, Calif.) scored a dozen. UNT's Tristan Thompson led all scorers with 19 points, while George Odufuwa had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
The Pioneers started hot, hitting four of their first six shots, but Denver was just 4-for-18 the rest of the first half, and North Texas took a 31-23 lead to the break. Stafford led the way in the first half with 10 points, all of which came in the first 6:19 of the game.
The Mean Green outrebounded DU 22-12 in the first half, including eight offensive boards that led to 11 second chance points.
In his 120th and possibly last game at the University of Denver, Rohnert became DU's leader in all-time games played. The Parker, Colo., native is ninth on DU's all-time scorer list with 1,307 points. The senior captain is fourth all-time in both free throws made (379) and free throw attempts (528), sixth on Denver's all-time career assists list (357), and seventh in career steals (124).
"I just said to Nate that we have been through a lot in three years," Scott said. "Every coach in this league has said at me at some point personally to tell that kid that I have never seen a kid improve that much in three or four years in college basketball. That is a total compliment to Nate Rohnert; the kid is a gym rat. I told the team that we have made a ton of progress and we are going to have to replace this guy, and what we are going to have to replace most is his love of the game of the basketball ... how much he is in the gym and how much he works. We need 15 guys like that, we are losing one and we have to replace that. He has meant the world to this program, he has a lot of character and that is the kind of kid that he is."
North Texas advance to face No. 1 seeded Troy in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Finals on Tuesday at 5 p.m. MT with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"I think it is a compliment to our league that the two best teams are playing for the title tomorrow in Troy and North Texas," Scott said. "I also think that every game in this tournament has been a good basketball game; it is been hard fought and well played. I think it shows the depth of our league, tonight was a good basketball game. North Texas played extremely well, but it was extremely competitive."
The championship game will be broadcast live on ESPN2. Live video and live stats are available at http://www.sunbeltsports.org/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4100&ATCLID=204783267.
