DENTON - Teams like Grambling State won't give too much indication of how a season might unfold. Being 7-1 is a better clue, even if the opponent isn't.

North Texas is 7-1 for the first time since 1977 and seems to have settled into a groove, even if it has to locate it at times during the course of a game. The Mean Green led by as many as 18 points before Grambling (1-6) cut the lead to four in the second half before succumbing in UNT's 89-78 victory before 2,446 at the Super Pit.

Tristan Thompson lit it up again with 28 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He was perfect at the line (7 of 7) and had five 3-pointers.

Thompson nearly tied or bettered his career-high 29 points on Tuesday against UT-Arlington. He's averaging 26.5 points per game in his last four games.

"He's very confident right now," UNT coach Johnny Jones said. "He's playing like the senior he is. I look at his line tonight, and he was very efficient."

UNT had no offensive rebounds at halftime but led 46-35 after shooting 64 percent in the first half. UNT led by 16 in the first half, gaining that margin at the 6:34 mark on a Josh White jumper.

Grambling, which led Vanderbilt early 16-4, wouldn't go away easily in the second half after UNT led early by 15. Justin Patton (26 points) led a comeback that saw him dunk off the baseline to cut UNT's lead to 58-54 with 12:29 to play.

But Grambling couldn't keep UNT's shooters out of the lane. Thompson and four other Mean Green players in double figures helped push the lead back to 18 with 4:31 remaining on Dominique Johnson's layup.

George Odufuwa (14 points, 10 rebounds), Kedrick Hogans (13 points), Josh White 12 points) and Johnson (10 points, five assists) left Grambling with too many defensive assignments, and UNT eventually unloaded the bench. Ben Knox had a career-high four points.

"We're not playing to the best of our ability," Odufuwa said. "Things go bad, but figure a way to pull it out. We've got to stomp on teams' throats and increase that lead, not them them get back into it."

Closing out opponents, especially weakers ones, is of some concern, Odufuwa and Thompson said. UNT seems to have addressed starting games slowly, but the early stages of the second half need some polishing.

"It's one of those areas we really need to concentrate on," Jones said. "We've had lapses after we get ahead. We're not playing yet where we were last year in March, but we're further along than we were at this point."