@UNCBearsWBB Shoots Past Western State

Monday, November 16

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

2-0

101

Western State

0-0

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Western State	8	12	9	19	48
Northern Colorado	29	23	25	24	101

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

11/16/2015 11:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Northern Colorado basketball shot lights out to defeat Western State Monday night

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – While the rain and snow was coming down outside Bank of Colorado Arena Monday night, the UNC women's basketball team was raining 3-pointers inside. UNC rode 15 threes and a 46.9 percent performance from behind the arc to defeat Western State, 101-48.

"It was nice to finally see someone play man against us, for the most part teams had zoned us, so it was good to see us get some in-game looks at out man offense," head coach Kamie Ethridge said. "In a game like this I was able to get a lot of players into the game and get looks against different line-ups."

Seven different Bears hit a 3-point shot in the game, led by the four makes from senior guard, Kyleigh Hiser. She ended the night as the team's leading scorer with 21 points, going 8-for-10 from the field, and 4-of-6 from downtown. She also added in five rebounds and two assists in the win.

Northern Colorado went on a 21-4 run from midway through the first quarter until the end of it, and never looked back on its way to the second victory of the year.

Not only did UNC shoot well (54.1%), but they also valued the ball, committing just two turnovers compared to their 27 assists. Those 27 assists are the third most in the program's history since it joined the Division I ranks.

"I think we did a lot of things well tonight. It was good to work on our man offense tonight," Hiser said. "Coach E (Kamie Ethridge) touched on that, in our first two games this year teams mainly zoned us, so it was good for us to finally see how our man offense looked. Sometimes we didn't execute the way we should, but we will see that on film and work on it. "

Katie Longwell had the most assists out of anyone in the game tallying up seven, for a new career-high. 11 of the 12 players that saw action in Monday's game recorded an assist, and all 12 scored. Besides Hiser, two other UNC players made it to double figures in points.

"This team has a good IQ and athleticism. When we use our cuts and get to the rim, we get good looks out of it," Ethridge said about her team early on in the season. "This team has been playing with good pace and energy and we can shoot the ball well."

Redshirt freshman Savannah Smith followed up an excellent first game, with another solid performance, scoring 11 points, dishing out five assists, grabbing three rebounds and coming up with two steals.

Freshman Danielle Noble also finished with 11 points, coming off the bench in 20 minutes of court time. She also had five rebounds, two steals, an assist and block.

The Bears ended the night with 62 bench points, 42 points in the paint and 27 points off turnovers. Those 27 points came off of 18 Western State turnovers.

Northern Colorado will now put its 2-0 record to the test on Thursday night when they travel to Boulder to take on Colorado at 7:00 p.m.

"Colorado will present a good challenge for us with the athletes they have and the size they have compared to us," said Ethridge about the upcoming matchup against the PAC-12 opponent.