North Texas was rolling right along in the closing moments of its game against Troy when the Mean Green did what no one expected in a showdown of the top two offensive teams in the Sun Belt Conference.

UNT just quit scoring.

The Mean Green led by four with just 4:03 left in the second half before going scoreless the rest of the way in a 77-69 loss Thursday at the Super Pit.

UNT and Troy both came into the night having won four straight, but it was the Trojans that kept their roll going after finishing the game on a 12-0 run.

“We had a chance to make a move about the four-minute mark,” UNT head coach Johnny Jones said. “They remained poised and made some big plays down the stretch. We had some turnovers late when we needed attempts and didn’t play as strong as we needed to in the paint.”

Failing to perform late proved costly for the Mean Green in a key game. UNT (12-8, 5-4) was just one game behind Sun Belt West Division leader Arkansas-Little Rock in the loss column heading into the night.

The Mean Green will have to turn around and face East Division leader Western Kentucky on the road Saturday.

UNT appeared as if it might head into the opener of a two-game road trip on a roll after sophomore forward George Odufuwa hit a jumper to put the Mean Green up 69-65 just before the four-minute mark.

At that point, it appeared as if the shot would be the cap to a notable performance for the sophomore forward. Odufuwa finished with eight points and 18 rebounds, the top total for a player in the Sun Belt this season and the eighth most for a game in UNT history.

Junior forward Eric Tramiel and senior guard Adam McCoy also played key roles in helping the Mean Green grab its late lead.

Tramiel led UNT with 19 points, while McCoy had 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the three-point arc. Brandon Hazzard led Troy (12-10, 7-3) with 23.

McCoy was about the only UNT player who was effective shooting from deep against a 2-3 zone defense that gave the Mean Green fits all night. UNT went just 7-for-26 from beyond the three-point arc.

“We practiced against the zone all week,” McCoy said. “We knew what they were going to do. Our shots that normally fall didn’t tonight.”

UNT was still in position to win the game despite those struggles, but couldn’t get its shots to fall late. The Mean Green went 0-for-5 from the field and turned the ball over twice in the final four minutes.

“We didn’t make the plays at the end to build a good cushion after we were up four,” Tramiel said. “We were not aggressive enough. We were not aggressive enough the whole game.”

The Mean Green’s struggles late spoiled its comeback from a slow start.

UNT struggled to solve Troy’s zone defense in the early going and trailed 11-4 before McCoy provided the Mean Green a spark by hitting a pair of 3-pointers, the second of which gave UNT a 17-16 lead.

The Mean Green led by as many as four, but Troy scored the last points of a back-and-forth first half and grabbed a 34-33 lead at the break.

UNT was unable to turn the tide against a hot Troy team that shot 57 percent from the field in the second half.

The Mean Green knew just how deadly the Trojans could be offensively. Troy came into the night leading the Sun Belt with an average of 77.7 points a game, just slightly better than the 76.9 points UNT was posting per game.

When UNT went cold late, there was no way the Mean Green could keep pace with the league’s best offensive team.

“They are a high powered team,” Jones said. “You can’t afford to go on a drought like we did. They came out and shot 57 percent in the second half and were the aggressor.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

Troy 77, North Texas 69

TROY (12-10, 7-3) – Jones 5-9 0-0 10, Jervis 2-4 3-4 7, Hazzard 8-14 5-6 23, Vogler 3-6 2-4 8, Delk 3-8 1-2 8, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Telfair 7-8 2-3 16, Ware 2-7 0-0 5, Lee 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-59 13-19 77.

NORTH TEXAS (12-8, 5-4) – Odufuwa 3-7 2-2 8, Tramiel 6-13 7-9 19, Johnson 4-9 0-0 9, White 1-5 0-0 2, Thompson 4-8 3-3 11, Dennis 2-6 0-0 5, McCoy 5-11 0-0 15, Stewart 0-0 0-0 0, Hogans 0-1 -0 0, Howerton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-60 12-14 69.

Halftime – Troy 34-33. 3-point goals – Troy 4-10 (Hazzard 2-4, Delk 1-2, Ware 1-4), UNT 7-26 (Johnson 1-5, White 0-4, Thompson 0-3, Dennis 1-4, McCoy 5-10). Fouled out – none. Rebounds – Troy 34 (Vogler 8), UNT 36 (Odufuwa 18). Assists – Troy 14 (Vogler 8), UNT 16 (McCoy, Dennis, Johnson 3). Totals fouls – Troy 12, UNT 12. A – 3,557.