University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Saturday, January 16
Greeley, CO
5:00 p.m.
University of Northern Colorado
5-13, 2-4BSC
78
vs
76
Montana State University
7-11, 2-4BSC
1
2
F
Montana State
41
35
76
Northern Colorado
42
36
78
Team Stats
MSU
UNCO
FG%
.424
.474
3FG%
.407
.389
FT%
.750
.739
RB
40
37
TO
12
10
STL
3
4
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
8
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
10
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballPhoto by: Dean Popejoy
@unco_mbb Edges Out Montana State 78-76
1/16/2016 8:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
A pair of Jeremy Verhagen free throws with 27 seconds remaining in the game and two stops at the defensive end of the court snapped the team's four-game losing streak.
PDF Box Score
GREELEY, Colo. – A clutch pair of redshirt sophomore center, Jeremy Verhagen free throws with 26 seconds to play sealed the win for Northern Colorado (5-13, 2-4 Big Sky) over Montana State (7-11, 2-4 Big Sky) on Saturday night, snapping the team's four-game losing streak.
The Bears walked out of Bank of Colorado Arena with a 78-76 win over the Bobcats after two defensive stops in the final seconds of regulation.
The game was back and forth all night, featuring 10 different lead changes and five ties.
UNC built an eight point lead (66-58) over MSU with 7:26 remaining on the clock before the Bobcats battled back to tie the game off a Tyler Hall four-point play (76-76) with 38 ticks to go.
Hall drained a three and drew the foul, converting at the line to even up the game. Hall led all scorers on the night with 22 points.
After the free throw make by MSU, junior guard, Dallas Anglin drove the lane and found Verhagen who went up strong to the rim, drawing the foul.
Verhagen was 2-of-4 at the free throw line before sinking both his shots to give the Bears the lead and eventually the win.
Anglin did a little bit of everything on the night, dropping 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting and was perfect from the charity stripe going 8-for-8. He also added a career-best six assists and five rebounds. It was the junior's third time in 12 games to reach the 20-point mark.
Fellow junior guard, Anthony Johnson got back into his offensive groove, scoring 16 points, while guards, Jordan Davis and Jordan Wilson both pitched in 10 apiece.
"The first stat you look at is our defensive field goal percentage and they're a team with a lot of weapons and I thought after them taking a loss at North Dakota they had some edge to them," head coach B.J. Hill said about the win. "So for us to be able to hold them to 42.0% I thought was a pretty good effort even though it was on our home floor."
Northern Colorado played from behind most of the first half, but never trailed by more than six.
The Bears ended the first half on a 7-0 run to take the lead heading into the halftime at 42-41.
Montana State led just one time in the second half (43-42) at the 19:06 mark, but after that UNC never relinquished the lead, shooting 60.0% (12-of-20) from the floor, including 50.0% (3-of-6) from downtown in the final 20 minutes.
"I saw a lot more energy tonight, a lot more focus toward defending which I thought was the difference," Hill added. "We let it slip a little bit, we got it up to six or seven I think and made some unintelligent plays to be honest – we had some sets called and guys not get their job executed and it led to turnovers and they got five easy points quickly and all of a sudden it was a different game. To our guys credit at that point, they didn't pout, they didn't put their heads down – I felt like they fought to get some stops and executed down the stretch."
The team finished the night 27-of-57 (47.4%) from the field and 38.9% (7-of-18) from beyond the arc.
UNC also dished out a season-high tying 16 assists in the two-point win.
Men's hoops heads back out on the road next week heading to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona on Jan. 21 and 23rd.
Stats of the Game:
- UNC's defense held Montana State to 42.4% shooting, which is the lowest shooting percentage the Bears have held a team to since holding Colorado State to 38.6%.
- Northern Colorado only committed 10 turnovers on the night, tying the season-low mark. The last time the Bears had 10 turnovers or less came against UC-Riverside on Dec. 3.
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