Short-handed @unco_mbb Edged Out by Weber State

Saturday, January 21

Greeley, CO

7:00 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

7-12, 3-5BSC

Weber State University

10-7, 5-1BSC

Weber State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

1/21/2017 10:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kobee Stalder, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. - Northern Colorado (7-12, 3-5 Big Sky) went toe-to-toe with Weber State (10-7, 5-1 Big Sky) on Saturday night, but were edged out by the Wildcats 74-69.

How It Happened:
The biggest lead was no more than six points the entire evening as the Bears showed resiliency after a tough-to-swallow loss against Idaho State on Thursday.

UNC was also three players short on the roster as Ibrahim Sylla, Gerad Davis and Mike Ranson were all sidelined for different health reasons.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead off back-to-back threes from Ryan Richardson, but that was the furthest the Big Sky leaders could put between themselves and the Bears for the rest of the game.

However, WSU never surrendered its lead for the first 26 minutes of the ball game.

UNC was able to hang around thanks to its free throw shooting. After finishing 31% from the line against ISU, the Bears were a stout 11-of-15 (73.3%) from the stripe in the first half.

With a 1:19 to remaining until intermission, The Wildcats pressed the difference to five (37-32), but sophomore guard, Jordan Davis got a circus act lay-in to fall before the half ended to make it 37-34 at the break.

Northern Colorado produced its first lead of the game six minutes into the second half off a junior guard, DJ Miles trey to tip the scales in favor of the Bears at 44-43.

For the next 14 minutes, the two teams exchanged the lead eight different times.

The biggest shots of the night for UNC came on back-to-back three balls from Davis and redshirt sophomore guard, Chaz Glotta. The two makes were just four seconds apart after the Bears forced a WSU turnover, making it a 56-54 contest in favor of Northern Colorado with 8:24 to go.

Davis was forced to sit after picking up his fourth foul with 5:00 left on the clock and the Wildcats took advantage of the situation, increasing UNC's deficit once again to six (66-60).

The Bears refused to go away however, battling back to make it a one-point, 70-69 game with :19 ticks to play after senior forward, Jon'te Dotson went 1-of-2 at the line.

After a foul on UNC,, Weber State made two shots at the charity stripe, but the Bears got the ball back trailing by three (72-69) just two seconds later.

Miles drove the lane on the ensuing possession, but was called for an offensive foul with :06 to play. Weber State tacked on two more free throws to seal the Bears' fourth consecutive loss.

Davis led all scorers in the loss with 21 points, adding five rebounds and four assists to his stat line. Miles and Glotta also finished in double figures with 14 and 10 points.

Weber State's Zach Braxton led the Wildcats with 17 points.

Game Changer:
Ibrahim Sylla was sorely missed as UNC had no answer for Weber State's big man, Zach Braxton. Braxton scored all 17 of his points in the paint, going 8-of-10 from the field.

Key Stat:
The Wildcats churned out 23 points off of Northern Colorado's 21 turnovers on the night.

In Their Words:
Sophomore guard, Jordan Davis
"We just wanted to play our game tonight. When we do play our game, we're tough, we're scrappy - we can go play with anybody. They didn't do anything special. We just didn't execute. We turned the ball over, we shot bad shots, we didn't finish. They're (Weber State) the best team in the conference, you can't make mistakes because they're not going to beat themselves."

Head Coach, Jeff Linder
"There's no such thing as moral victory, but with our back's against the wall in a game where we could have just sat there and said, 'woe is us' and make a lot of excuses for only having nine guys, we didn't. I knew our guys were going to come out and try to throw the first punch and fight."

"With an experienced team like them (Weber State) with guys who played in NCAA tournament games, guys who have won conference championships those last five minutes of the game, that's where I thought you could see the difference between us. That's when I thought our guys could have put their head down, but they didn't. As I told the guys, you earned respect from Weber State, you earned the respect of the officials and now we just have to take that on the road and find a way to squeeze out some games at Southern Utah and Northern Arizona."

Notables:
- Northern Colorado finished 72.7% at the free throw line, going 16-of-22.
- UNC won the rebound battle 31-28.
- The Bears finished 48.9% from the field on 23-of-47 shooting and 41.2% from beyond the arc, going 7-of-17.
- Northern Colorado is now 0-11 in games where they've trailed at the half.
- Redshirt freshman guard, Jonah Radebaugh once again proved he is one of the best defenders in the league, holding WSU's Jeremy Senglin to 15 points. Senglin entered Saturday's game averaging 23.8 points in Big Sky play.

Up Next:
UNC now undertakes a three-game road swing beginning next Thursday, Jan. 26 at Northern Arizona. Tip against the Lumberjacks is set for 7:00 p.m.