Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 114, Ed. 1 Monday, November 24, 2014 Page: 9 of 18
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SECTION B
WHO TO CALL
Larry McBride,
940-566-6913
Monday, November 24, 2014
Denton Record-Chronicle
Sports
INSIDE SPORTS
Baylor continues to
seek college playoffs
Page 3B
DentonRC.com
North Texas’ fight keeping team going
iving up would have been the
■ h easy thing for North Texas to do
heading into its home finale on
Saturday against Florida International.
The Mean Green had nothing to
play for, at least not when it came to
their biggest goal of returning to the
postseason in 2014.
There will be no bowl game for the
Mean Green, no future beyond next
week’s season finale against Texas-San
Antonio. A crushing loss to UTEP last
week left UNT facing the harsh reality
that no matter what, 2014 will be a los-
ing season.
The Mean Green never lost focus de-
spite that harsh reality.
That might have been what UNT
Brett
Vito
NORTH TEXAS FOOTBALL
coach Dan McCarney was happiest
about following a 17-14 win against the
Golden Panthers at Apogee Stadium.
UNT wasn’t perfect. It made mis-
takes. But in the end, the Mean Green
responded to last week’s loss to the Min-
ers and pulled out a win when it would
have been easy to give something less
than a full effort.
“When you have a shot at a winning
season that is lost and you can’t play for
a bowl game, you can really see a team
go in the tank and spiral downward,
lose focus, intensity and pride,” McCar-
ney said. ‘What you saw tonight was a
team that was determined to win a
game and the character of our seniors.”
McCarney has talked a lot about the
importance of his senior class over the
past few weeks. He talked about how
much character and pride the group
possesses.
Those seniors were the reason more
than a few people had the Mean Green
pegged to play in a bowl at the begin-
ning of the season.
Derek Akunne is one of the better
linebackers UNT has rolled out over the
past decade, while guards Cyril Lemon
and Mason Y’Barbo have been rocks for
the Mean Green for years.
Those players harbored dreams of
going to back-to-back bowl games, a
milestone UNT hasn’t reached since its
remarkable run of four straight New
Orleans Bowls from 2001-04.
That dream was long gone by the
time Lemon and Y’Barbo were the last
two seniors in a long fine of them in-
troduced before kickoff on Senior Day
that also included running back Reggie
Pegram.
“It was big to go out this way, on top,”
Pegram said of his last home game with
the Mean Green.
Pegram was one of UNT’s veteran
players who made sure that is exactly
what would happen.
The senior hasn’t enjoyed the season
he had hoped after coming back from a
serious knee injury last year, but was
there when UNT needed him against
FIU. Pegram rushed for 114 yards with
almost half of it coming on huge tone-
setting 54-yard run on the second play
of the game.
See FOOTBALL on 3B
Julio Cortez/AP
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, left, catches a pass for a touchdown against New York Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
on Sunday in East Rutherford, N J.
In the nick of time
Cowboys’ late TD in
fourth quarter gives
team rivalry victory
By Barry Wilner
AP Pro Football Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -
Odell Beckham Jr. provided the spec-
tacular, then Tony Romo and Dez Bry-
ant trumped it.
Pro football
Cowboys 31, New York 28
Romo threw two touchdown pass-
es to Bryant, the winner from 13 yards
out with 1:01 remaining, lifting the
Dallas Cowboys to a comeback 31-28
victory against the New York Giants.
Romo threw for two TDs in the
third quarter and Barry Church’s in-
terception helped turn things in the
Cowboys’ favor. But the Giants (3-8),
trailing 24-21, staged a 93-yard drive
capped by Adrien Robinson’s first ca-
reer TD catch. That 1-yard score with 3
minutes remaining could have
snapped New York’s slide that now is
at six losses.
Back came Dallas (8-3) on an 80-
yard march in which Romo never
was pressured as he searched for re-
ceivers. He found Bryant in the back
of the end zone to win it, setting up
an NFC East showdown with Phila-
delphia on Thanksgiving Day for
first place.
Dallas, which was treated to chants
of “Let’s go Cowboys!” in the second
half from hundreds of fans in Cow-
boys garb, is 5-0 on the road. New
York, meanwhile, was eliminated
from division contention.
Thanks to Beckham’s incredible
one-handed catch, one of the rookie’s
two first-half touchdowns, New York
built a 21-10 halftime lead.
But Romo hit Cole Beasley with a
See COWBOYS on 4B
Iona takes
down UNT
at home
By Brett Vito
Staff Writer
bvito @ dentonrc. com
North Texas coach Tony Benford
spent a lot of time with a remote control
in his hands over the past few days,
watching tape and trying to devise a
way to slow down a player he believes is
among the best guards in the country.
North Texas basketball
Men: Iona 78, UNT 58
Nothing Benford and his staff came
up with could help the Mean Green
contain A. J. English.
The Iona junior guard seemed hit
everything he threw at the basket on
See MEN on 3B
North Texas
women fall
short in
overtime
By Brett Vito
Staff Writer
bvito @ dentonrc. com
The high hopes the North Texas
women’s basketball team had of getting
off to a good start during a season-
opening homestand officially came to
an end on Sunday.
North Texas basketball
Women: E. Illinois 59, UNT 57 OT
The Mean Green lost their first three
games of the season, all on their home
floor and saw that slide reach four
games with a 59-57 overtime loss to
Eastern Illinois at the Super Pit.
The same problems that have hurt
UNT all season came back to haunt the
Mean Green again. UNT hit just four of
its 12 free throw attempts and struggled
to contain EIU’s star player Sabina
Oroszova in the second half.
UNT blew an 11-point lead in the
See WOMEN on 3B
Seahawks crush Arizona
By Tim Booth
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Swarmed by the blitz-
ing rush of the best team in the NFL,
Russell Wilson scrambled, slipped,
eluded and finally got the Seattle Sea-
hawks in the end zone.
Considering the circumstances, it
was probably Seattle’s most important
drive of the season as the Seahawks
handed the Arizona Cardinals their sec-
ond loss of the season, 19-3 on Sunday.
Wilson was sacked a season-high
seven times by Arizona’s ultra-aggres-
sive defense and the assortment ofbfitz-
es they called to confuse and fluster the
Seahawks quarterback. But when Seat-
tle (7-4) needed a scoring drive, after
squandering advantageous field posi-
tion throughout the game, Wilson de-
Pro football
Seattle 19, Arizona 3
fivered.
Wilson found backup tight end Coo-
per Helfet on a 20-yard catch-and-run
touchdown late in the third quarter in a
victory that was a must for Seattle if it
had any hopes of getting back into the
division race. The Seahawks entered
the day trailing Arizona (9-2) by three
games in the NFC West
Wilson finished 17 of 22 for 211 yards
and added 73 yards rushing.
Arizona was held to a season-low
204 total yards. A week after throwing
for a career-high 306 yards, Drew Stan-
ton was 14 of 26 for 149 and one inter-
ception
Wilson was 6 of 6 for 70 yards on the
drive as Seattle moved the pocket and
made him less vulnerable to the Arizo-
na rush. He escaped the arms of Loren-
zo Alexander for a possible sack and
found Marshawn Lynch open for 23
yards. Wilson also ran for 15 yards on
third-and-11 to get Seattle inside the Ar-
izona 20.
Wilson had a possible 49-yard
touchdown run in the first half brought
back on a downfield holding call. Lynch
was corralled by Arizona’s third-best
rush defense and held to 39 yards on 15
carries, making it 21 straight games the
Cardinals have not allowed a 100-yard
rusher.
Steven Hauschkahit on field goals of
27, 32, 52 in the first half and a 40-
See SEAHAWKS on 4B
Elaine Thompson/AP
Seattle Seahawks tight end Cooper Helfet dives for a touchdown in the
second half of their game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in Seat-
tle.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 114, Ed. 1 Monday, November 24, 2014, newspaper, November 24, 2014; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1108587/m1/9/?q=%22~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .