Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 111, Ed. 1 Monday, November 21, 2016 Page: 9 of 18
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INSIDE SPORTS
Denton Record-Chronicle
SECTION B
Johnson ties record
with his 7th title
Page 3B
Sports
WHO TO CALL
940-566-6913
Larry McBride
Monday, November 21, 2016
DentonRC.com
Morris gets storybook ending in last home game
After nearly five seasons at two
schools, Morris finally got a chance to
show it and won for the first time as a
starting quarterback.
The former Allen standout threw for
267 yards and two touchdowns and
guided UNT on a game-winning drive
in the fourth quarter.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say it felt
good,” Morris said of guiding UNT to win
that snapped a three-game losing streak.
“But regardless of who is back there, I
have had a great season. Since I have
helped Mason, I get a lot of joy from
watching him succeed. He is so young. I
have a sister his age. He feels like a little
brother to me. He is going to be a fantas-
tic player, but to go out there with all the
guys and get this win was awesome.”
he last time we checked in with
Alec Morris, it looked like the
North Texas quarterback’s jour-
ney had essentially come to an end — at
least when it came to making an impact
on the field.
The Alabama transfer seemed des-
tined for clipboard duty after freshman
sensation Mason Fine took over before
Morris had made it through a game.
The funny thing about football is that
every once in a while, something hap-
pens that opens the door for one of those
feel-good stories that make sports great.
That’s just what happened Saturday
night during the Mean Green’s 29-23
win against Southern Miss at Apogee
Stadium.
UNT called on Morris after losing
Fine to a shoulder injury last week in a
loss to Western Kentucky.
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Brett Vito
NORTH TEXAS FOOTBALL
Before we knew it, the fans in the
stands at Apogee Stadium had wit-
nessed a real-life holiday story right be-
fore the holidays.
Morris is by all accounts a great guy
and a great teammate.
Turns out, he’s a capable quarter-
back as well.
Tomas Gonzalez/DRC
North Texas senior quarterback Alec Morris (5) tries to escape a tackle
Saturday in UNT’s 29-23 win against Southern Mississippi at Apogee Stadi-
um. Morris threw for 267 yards and two touchdowns in the win.
See VITO on 3B
Dragons
slay UNT,
struggles
continue
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By Brett Vito
Staff Writer
bvito @ dentonrc. com
Tony Benford wanted to challenge
his team early in his fifth season at
North Texas and set out a path that in-
cludes a series of tough games to open
the year.
North Texas basketball
Men: Drexel 83, UNT 62
UNT’s coach just didn’t anticipate
that slate would leave his team facing
such a tough path to its first win against
a Division I team.
That journey is starting to look like it
might take a while following the Mean
Green’s 83-62 loss to Drexel on Sunday
at the Super Pit.
The Dragons blitzed UNT with a
15-2 run in the first half and never
looked back while handing the Mean
Green their second straight blowout
loss. Texas Tech hammered UNT 70-43
on Tuesday in UNT’s first game against
a DI opponent.
The Mean Green (1-2) now face the
prospect of traveling to Rutgers on
Wednesday. That game doesn’t look like
it will offer much relief. The Scarlet
Knights are 4-0 and beat Drexel by 2L
UNT’s lone win thus far came
against Division III Sul Ross State.
“We have to play better. We know
that,” Benford said. ‘We are going to
play a lot of Division I teams from here
on out. We have to do a better job
whether it is Division I, Division II,
NAIA or Division III. We have to go out
and execute and play hard. We have to
defend, rebound and execute on the of-
fensive end.”
UNT struggled with just about all
those aspects of the game at one point
or another in its loss to Drexel (2-2).
The Mean Green scored only 21
points in the first half and didn’t offer
much resistance defensively against a
team picked to finish ninth in the Co-
lonial Athletic Association.
Jeremy Combs showed some signs
of life offensively as he continues to
work his way back from offseason ankle
surgery and finished with 15 points to
lead UNT.
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Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant celebrates after catching a touchdown pass Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens in Arlington. Dallas won
27-17 for its ninth straight win and moved to 9-1 on the season.
Follow the leader
Prescott guides Cowboys to 9th straight win
By Schuyler Dixon | Associated Press
ARLINGTON — New backup, same result for rookie quar-
terback Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys.
Prescott threw three touchdown passes, two to Dez Bry-
ant, in the first game with Tony Romo as his backup, and the
Cowboys set a franchise regular-season record with their ninth
straight win, beating the Baltimore Ravens 27-17 on Sunday.
The Cowboys (9-1) punted on their
first four possessions — a first this sea-
son — against the NFL’s No. 1 defense.
But Prescott completed 14 of 15 in the
second half and led drives of 92 and 88
yards to start the second half and break
a tie at 10. Both drives ended with TD
passes to Bryant.
“like I said before, the guy’s amaz-
ing,” said Bryant, who had six catches
for 80 yards in his first two-score game
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Cowboys
Dallas 27, Baltimore 17
since his All-Pro season of 2014.
“We’re going to follow that guy.
We’re going to continue to keep follow-
ing that guy. The way that he adjusts
and the way he handles his business, it
says a lot about him.”
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Michael Ainsworth/AP
Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott tries to find running room. The rookie
had 97 yards Sunday to break the team’s rookie rushing record.
See COWBOYS on 4B
See UNT on 3B
Spector heats up as TWU holds off late Mountain Lion rally
them to 66 points and 38 percent from
the field, that’s a really good job by us.
Defense is going to win us games. It’s
early in the season, so we just have to
continue to get better on the boards, de-
fensively and share the basketball
more.”
points, Spector went off.
Back-to-back 3-point plays with
converted free throws got her rolling,
and she finished her eruption with
back-to-back 3-point shots to inflate
TWU’s lead to 30-21.
“I thought she did a good job want-
ing the ball,” Jillson said. “Her team-
mates did a good job of finding her
open. She was obviously feeling it and
made some big-time shots. We’ve got 11
returners and five seniors; they all really
stepped up today. They all knew the
game yesterday cost us with getting into
the regional tournament and that this
was a really good opponent.”
TWU ramped up its play in the third
quarter with a 7-0 run and layered, en-
ergetic defense to start the quarter and
extend their lead to 37-26.
The Mountain lions (3-1) cut the
lead in half at 41-35, but TWU held a
47-37 lead after three quarters.
The Mountain Lions outscored
TWU 29-23 in the fourth quarter, but
forward Alexis Nezianya delivered
some tough buckets to keep them at
arm’s length and finished the game with
13 points.
The Mountain lions cut the lead to
By Patrick Hayslip
Staff Writer
phayslip @ dentonrc. com
After losing to Newman for their
first loss of the season on Saturday, the
TWU Pioneers knew Sunday’s match-
up against University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs was crucial if they
wanted to lay the groundwork for a
berth in the regional tournament.
The Pioneers corrected their errors
against the Mountain lions after they
let Newman shoot 48 percent from the
floor the previous night.
Coupled with an offensively sound
second half, TWU’s defense held UCCS
TWU basketball
TWU 70, UCCS 66
to 38 percent shooting and held off a fu-
rious late-game charge for a 70-66 vic-
tory at Kitty Magee Arena.
TWU coach Beth Jillson always has
had a defensive mindset, especially ear-
ly in seasons as the Pioneers attempt to
build their foundation, but she admits
it’s still a work in progress.
“I think it was a defensive battle for
us,” Jillson said. “We were frustrated
with our defensive performance yester-
day against Newman, so we knew we
had to come in and dictate. To hold
TWU trailed 8-3 early in the first
quarter and 15-13 at the end of the first
quarter, but leading scorer Emily Spec-
tor put the offense on her back in the
second quarter.
After the Pioneers (4-1) took the
lead at 18-15 early in the second on
back-to-back buckets from Grace
Mitchell, who finished with nine
See TWU on 3B
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 111, Ed. 1 Monday, November 21, 2016, newspaper, November 21, 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1127477/m1/9/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .