Men's Basketball Takes Season Opener, 83-62 over Black Hills State

Friday, November 14

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

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Black Hills State

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BHSUMBB

UNCO

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

11/14/2014 10:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Senior guard, Tevin Svihovec dropped 17 points and scored his 1,000th career point in the blowout victory

By: UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – After a cold start in the opening minutes of the first half from the Northern Colorado men's basketball team (1-0, 0-0 Big Sky), the Bears fired on all cylinders in the second half to down Black Hills State University (DII) 83-62.

"It was hard tonight when Tim goes out with a broken nose three minutes into it and we get in foul trouble," head coach B.J. Hill said. "We were scrambling. It didn't have everything to do with it, but it had a lot to do with our struggles early because we were out of sync and had guys playing out of position."

Northern Colorado came out ice cold, shooting just 2-13 from the field for the first 10 minutes of the half and trailed by as many as nine points to the Yellow Jackets.

An 18-foot jumper from sophomore, Jordan Wilson at the 10:55 mark of the half, ignited an 11-0 run for UNC, capped off by a lay-in from senior guard, Dwight Smith, giving the Bears their first lead of the game, 18-16.

Under six minutes to play, senior guard, Tevin Svihovec drove hard to the rim, laying it in for two points. After the make, Svihovec turned around and stole the ball away from BHSU, for another quick two points to give Northern Colorado a seven point lead, their largest of the half, 31-24.

Slowly, but surely the Bears continued to stretch the lead. After a smooth no look pass from Smith, redshirt freshman, Jeremy Verhagen dunked it with ease.

After a Yellow Jacket jumper from Nick Ongarato, Wilson took matters into his own hands, draining a three-ball, the only one of the half for UNC, giving the Bears a double-digit lead, up 38-28.

With less than 30 seconds remaining, a missed three-ball from sophomore, Cameron Michael, the ball wound up in Wilson's hands. Wilson found a cutting Verhagen with a nice bounce pass and again Verhagen threw down a two-handed dunk for the Bears' final points of the half.

Northern Colorado would head into the locker room with a nine point lead, 44-33.

After struggling from the field, UNC hit 13-15 from the floor and ended the half shooting, 50% (15-30) from inside the arch.

Black Hills State started off the half with a quick jumper from Yoshio Allen to cut the Bears' lead down to seven, but that is as close as they would get for the rest of the half.

On the ensuing possession junior, Cody McDavis muscled his way into the center of the paint and let a one-handed turnaround jumper fly, good for two points.

Svihovec got in on the action, scoring the next five points for UNC, including a three-pointer which put him over 1,000 points scored in his career. He is just the 20th player in program history to achieve the mark.

"It's a pretty great monument of my career," Svihovec said. "I'm just having fun out there and enjoy doing what I do. It's all about my teammates first and trying to get them involved, it's a cool accomplishment, but as a team we want to accomplish some bigger things this year."

Over the next five minutes of action UNC's offense clicked, making their next 4-7 shots, pushing the lead to sixteen, 61-45 over the Yellow Jackets.

A sophomore guard, Anthony Johnson make from beyond the arch extended the lead to 18 points with 10:24 to play.

Black Hills state attempted a comeback, sinking a three-ball of their own from Colin Smith, cutting into the Bears lead, making it 72-57 with 7:20 remaining in the game.

The trey-ball was quickly nullified by the Bears. After a miss from Smith on the other end of the court, BHSU guard Myles Henry threw up a three at the top of the arch, but was blocked by Michael. Michael scooped it up and found senior guard, Corey Spence on the other end of the floor for the easy layup.

With less than three minutes remaining two makes at the charity stripe from Spence push the Northern Colorado lead to 20 points and solidifying the regular-season opening win for the Bears.

UNC took the season opener, 83-62 over Black Hills State.

"We've got nine or ten guys that I think are capable of stepping in and producing," Hill added. "We'll need that heading into Sunday. Wyoming is very well coached and they're not going to give you anything, so we're going to have to start a lot better than we did tonight."

Northern Colorado boasted three players in double-digits on the night. Svihovec led all scorers with 17 points. Michael added 13 points and McDavis chimed in with 11 points and seven boards in the blowout victory.

The Bears were again solid from the free throw line, shooting 81%, making 17 of 21 attempts. UNC finished the game 51 % from the floor and outscored the Yellow Jackets, 38-23 inside the paint.

The men's basketball team travels to Laramie, Wyoming on Sunday, Nov. 16 for their first road game of the season, taking on out-of-state rival, Wyoming. Tipoff from Arena-Auditorium is set for 2:00 p.m.