University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Saturday, January 2
Greeley, CO
2:00 p.m.
University of Northern Colorado
4-10(1-1BSC)
70
vs
75
University of Idaho
10-5(2-0BSC)
1
2
F
Idaho
28
47
75
Northern Colorado
27
43
70
Team Stats
IDAHO
UNCO
FG%
.438
.415
3FG%
.455
.367
FT%
.852
.833
RB
37
28
TO
16
16
STL
5
5
Game Leaders
Pts
24
FGM
9
3FGM
5
FTM
1
Pts
14
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
5
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballPhoto by: Dean Popejoy
@unco_mbb Falls Down The Stretch To Idaho, 75-70.
1/2/2016 6:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Idaho went on a 9-2 run with less than four minutes remaining in the game to take a nine-point lead, a deficit the Bears could not overcome.
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GREELEY, Colo. – Despite a career night from junior forward, Jamal Evans who scored 24 points, Northern Colorado (4-10, 1-1 Big Sky) fell down the stretch to Idaho (10-5, 2-0 Big Sky) 75-70 on Saturday afternoon.
Evans dropped 16 points of his 24 in the second half, ending the game 9-of-12 from the floor including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. This was the first game that the junior college transfer had reached double figures with his previous career-high being eight, which he put up against Eastern Washington.
"Jamal's learning that he needs to play both ends of the floor and when he does that he gets rewarded," Hill said about Evans. "You can obviously see tonight how he can impact the game. That's another weapon for us when we have a big out there that can stretch the floor."
Three other Bears finished in double digits in the defeat. Junior guards, Dallas Anglin, Anthony Johnson and Jordan Wilson scored 14, 13 and 11 points, respectively. Wilson also dished out another seven assists his second time in as many games that he achieved that mark.
Wilson has now scored 10 points or more in all 14 games this season and is creeping up on the program's D1 record of 17 games, set by former guard, Will Figures in the 2009-10 season.
"It was a step in the right direction – that was a really good team," Hill added about the loss. "We as a staff need to figure out why we sputtered from the eight minute mark to the four minute mark in the second half. At that point, I think we were up five and they (Idaho) outscored us by eight and outrebounded us by six during that time."
Coming off Thursday's win over Eastern Washington where UNC shot a season-best 61.5% from the field, the team followed it up with a 41.5% (22-of-53) afternoon against the Vandals. The Bears finished 11-of-30 (36.7%) from beyond the arc, with five of those threes coming via Evans.
It was a very back and forth game that featured eight different ties and 14 lead changes with no team leading by more than nine points the entire 40 minutes of regulation.
The key factor of the game came in just four minutes of play during the second half.
After a knockdown jumper from Wilson made it a one point game (55-54), Idaho rallied for nine unanswered points with six of those coming from beyond the arc from UI's Chad Sherwood. Sherwood scored 18 points for Idaho with all of them coming off the three-ball.
After the run, the Vandals had a 66-57 lead, a deficit the Bears couldn't overcome.
UNC put Idaho at the line to attempt a comeback, but the visitors knocked down 21-of-25 shots at the charity stripe in the second half, with UI's Perrion Callandret making 13 of them to hand Northern Colorado its fifth loss of the season at home.
"I think we've gotten mentally better in the last two weeks, but there's obviously room to improve and I have as much to do with today's loss as the guys do," Hill said. "We didn't respond well to their zone in the first half and that's on me."
Men's hoops will head out on its first road trip of the conference season, playing at Idaho State (Jan. 7) and Weber State (Jan. 9) next Thursday and Saturday.
Stats of the Game:
-After holding Idaho to just two shots at the free throw line in the first half. UNC put the Vandals at the line 25 times in the second half.
- Northern Colorado was outrebounded in the game 37-28. Idaho scooped up 10 offensive rebounds to UNC's seven. The seven o-boards were twice as less as the team had in the Eastern Washington game where they hauled in 14.
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