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GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- There were all kinds of reasons to expect a letdown from Northern Colorado basketball Friday afternoon against North Dakota.

The Bears are off to one of the best starts in their 108-year history, they're ranked (#25 in the Mid-Major Top 25) in an NCAA Division I poll for the first time ever, and they were playing here the day after Thanksgiving about 1,000 miles from home at a weird noon Friday start time.

Also, this was Northern Colorado's sixth of six games away from Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion to start the season, and the Bears have one of the biggest games in school history awaiting Tuesday night in a home-opening showdown with Colorado State.

Put those all together, and this game against the Sioux just had "trap game" written all over it.

It didn't happen, though. Not completely, anyway.

Senior Will Figures scored 16 points and Devon Beitzel added 14 in this post-Thanksgiving Day tussle to power Northern Colorado to a 70-63 victory against its old North Central Conference foe and keep it perfect on the season (6-0) heading into next week's clash with the Rams.

Taylor Montgomery, Yahosh Bonner and Mike Proctor added nine points to help the Bears push past the Sioux (1-5).

Northern Colorado led 62-45 with 5:56 left in the game, but it let North Dakota finish the game on a 18-8 run to make things a lot more interesting than coach Tad Boyle ever wanted.

Figures sealed the deal down the stretch with six of his career-high 12 free throws in the final 1:05.

"We've got to learn to finish games better, obviously," Boyle said. "This is now the third time -- Texas Southern, Hawaii and today -- where we've had pretty sizeable leads only to see the game come down to the final minute or so. We're getting (wins), but we've got to close them out better.

"I thank God for Yahosh Bonner. Without him in in the second half today, I don't think we win this game."

Bonner had three steals in the second half alone Friday and, like he's done every game early on this year, he was all over the place in terms of defensive pressure and intensity.

Boyle now just needs to get Bonner's manner of play to translate to the rest of his squad. He said courtside Friday that he thinks his team may have gotten full of something other than turkey this past week.

"We've gone from the hunter to the hunted," he said. "One of the things that made us so great early on this year was that we played with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder to start out, but I don't think we have that now. We played the first half tonight like the world owed us something. I'm not real happy with the win."

North Dakota held a 29-25 edge in rebounding, a 12-11 advantage in steals and a 10-9 edge in assists. The Sioux also forced 22 turnovers and committed just 19.

Northern Colorado finished on top in shooting percentage (54.3 percent to 41.5).

"Last year, even when we played well and lost, there's a sense of accomplishment that you did something right as a coach. That your team played the way you wanted them to play, even if you came up a little bit short. I'm going to judge this team by how well we play, how smart we play, and how well we play together. Tonight, I would give us a D, F and a D in those respective categories tonight. I just don't think we played well."

NOTES: Northern Colorado has started the same players this year (Bonner, Figures, Beitzel, Proctor, Montgomery) in all six of its games this season ... The Bears and Sioux were tied at 34 at the half Friday ... This was the first time this season Northern Colorado did not take a lead into the intermission ... The Bears are one of just 15 teams nationally (out of 346) that have not and will not play a home game in November ... Northern Colorado is the only undefeated team of those 15 ... Elliott Lloyd's travel bag was left behind in Denver on Thursday, so he played today's contest in shoes bought this morning and Northern Colorado's #12 jersey.