TROY, Ala. -- Troy quarterback Levi Brown spent the entire fourth quarter of Troy’s game against North Texas on the sideline celebrating.

By that point, he had done more than enough to help the Trojans run past UNT 50-26 on Saturday at Movie Gallery Stadium.

Brown threw for a school-record 469 yards against UNT, which has lost six straight games overall and 15 in a row in Sun Belt Conference play dating back to the 2007 season.

The senior was remarkably efficient, completing 27 of his 44 attempts. He didn’t throw an interception and was sacked just once.

“Levi really threw it well,” UNT head coach Todd Dodge said. “I am very impressed with him. We already were impressed with him coming in. We didn’t get enough pressure on him and when we did, he was still completing 25-yard passes from hash to hash.”

UNT (1-6, 0-4) led the Sun Belt in pass defense just two weeks ago with an average of 192.6 yards allowed a game, but has now given up 308 yards to Florida Atlantic and 492 to Troy (5-2, 4-0) in back-to-back weeks.

“Our defense made a lot of mistakes,” UNT safety Ira Smith said. “Most of their big plays came off of our mistakes. If you make the mistakes we made, what happened tonight will happen against any quarterback.”

Brown capped his night with the first rushing touchdown of his career, a 6-yard dash that put Troy up 41-7 late in the third quarter.

UNT struggled to keep up on a night it was shorthanded offensively. Starting quarterback Riley Dodge sat out with a sprained ankle. He missed the Mean Green’s loss to Alabama in the third week of the season with a separated shoulder.

Nathan Tune stepped in for Dodge and threw for 267 yards and two touchdowns. Troy stacked the line of scrimmage to try and shut down UNT’s running game and Lance Dunbar.

The sophomore rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns last week against FAU and had 526 yards in UNT’s last three games combined.

Dunbar finished with 111 yards, but 69 of them came on a fourth-quarter touchdown run. He had just 17 yards on eight carries in the first three quarters.

“They stacked the box against us and keyed on me,” Dunbar said. “They clogged the middle of the line.”

Troy took control almost immediately in the first half, scoring twice in its first 11 plays.

DuJuan Harris scored on 1-yard and 3-yard touchdown runs to cap the Trojans’ first two drives to begin a scoring blitz by Troy.

The Trojans scored on seven of their eight possessions in the first half and led 34-7 at halftime.

UNT didn’t have the firepower to keep up against Troy’s defense.

“Their front seven is unbelievable,” Tune said. “They have four guys who are going to be drafted. We knew we were in for a challenge, but we fought as hard as we could.”

Troy delivered the killer blow late in the first half, after the Mean Green scored its only points before the break on a 3-yard Dunbar touchdown run to cut into a 17-0 deficit.

UNT faced fourth-and-1 from the Troy 43-yard line and failed to convert when Dunbar ran up the middle out of the shotgun and right into the arms of defensive end Cameron Sheffield, who brought him down for a 1-yard loss.

“We were trying get a push and didn’t,” Todd Dodge said. “It could have been a better play call. I will put that one on me.”

Troy took over and scored 17 points in the final six minutes of the half, a run highlighted by Tebiarus Gill’s 20-yard touchdown reception from Brown.

UNT had a chance to stop the bleeding in the final minute before the break, but Troy linebacker Bear Woods intercepted a Tune pass with 52 seconds left. The Trojans cashed in with a 38-yard Michael Taylor field goal on the final play of the first half.

UNT never recovered a night Troy and Brown dominated.

 “It feels good when everything is working,” Brown said. “The offensive line gave me plenty of time to sit back there and look for guys, and the receivers ran good routes and got open. That made my job easy.”

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