Another Comeback, Another Buzzer Beater For @UNCBearsWBB

Saturday, January 9

Greeley, Colo.

2:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

7-7, 2-2BSC

Weber State

10-4, 2-1BSC

Weber State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

1/9/2016 6:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

UNC women's basketball uses another buzzer beater to get past Weber State

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo.—The Northern Colorado women's basketball team can now be called the Cardiac Bears after another last second victory inside Bank of Colorado Arena Saturday afternoon. Savannah Scott hit the game winning 2-pointer as time expired to give UNC (7-7, 2-2 Big Sky) a 65-63 victory over Weber State (10-4, 2-1 Big Sky).

"I was thinking Katie (Longwell) was going drive and kick out for the three, but when I realized she wasn't and I got the ball I jabbed my defender and went up for the shot," Scott said. "When I took it I felt totally off balanced, but it ended up working."

"At that point we are tied and have a chance to win it so we just let our players make something happen," head coach Kamie Ethridge said about the game winning play. "I thought Katie (Longwell) was taking too long to get the ball up the court, but once she did she looked like she was going to try and penetrate and score. They weren't guarding Scotty close and she got the ball and made that one dribble jumper for the win."

Scott's shot capped off a 19-5 run over the final 7:02 of the game to give the Bears the 12-point comeback win. This comeback victory comes after UNC had a 14-point come from behind win on Thursday over Idaho State.

She finished the game as the team's leading scorer with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including three 3-pointers. She also grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists and swiped two steals.

"Scotty does those glue things for us. She makes those gritty plays all over the court and really affects the game that way for us," Ethridge said. "When she is not in the game we are playing people that doesn't do all those things as well as she does. Once we went down 11 it wasn't worth keeping her on the bench."

In the first half both teams played a close game with UNC up 36-30 at the half.

Weber State came out strong in the second half though, outscoring UNC from the midway point of the third quarter to the early fourth 23-2, before the Bears came storming back.

During that time UNC had eight of its 17 turnovers in the game, in part to the Weber State pressure.

"It's hard to simulate that team, their personnel and their press. It's not just one press, but they change it up. The more experience we got with it through the game the better we did," Ethridge said of handling the press.

The game ending run started when Kourteney Zadina hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to get UNC back within single digits.
Zadina, who finished with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, played a key role in the team's comeback.

After WSU extended its lead to 11 off a Regina Okoye jumper, it was all UNC until the final seconds. Okoye led all scorers in the game with 26 points to go with four steals and four assists.

The Bears tied the game up at the 1:09 mark after a pair of Kianna Williams' free throws. For the game, Williams finished with five points, seven rebounds, four assists and a steal, but her biggest contribution for the team could not be seen in the stat sheet. Down the stretch she helped slow down Weber State's Okoye.

"There are things on the stat sheet that just pop off it and then there are plays that players make that people don't see on the stat sheet. Kianna made those plays for us tonight. She is still a young player and learning a lot, but she has a great IQ for the game," Ethridge added.
Between Williams' defense and a steal by Katie Longwell on the next WSU possession, UNC took the lead on a beautiful Kyleigh Hiser slip on a screen for the lay-up.

"It was a great play and that was what we wanted out of it either the slip for Kyleigh or the three for Kourteney. That play felt like it was in slow motion watching her go up for that layup," said Ethridge.

Scott hit one of two free throws with 14 seconds left to give Weber State a shot to tie the game up.
After being fouled, Emily Drake hit her first free throw, but missed her second leading to an Okoye rebound and lay-up to tie the game up and set up the Bears for the game-winning shot.

"We showed tonight we can play a lot of different ways and with a lot of different line ups which is very important in this conference. At this point we need to embrace the road and love to do it," said Ethridge. "We will need to manage the games and keep ourselves in it. It's exciting for this team to have success and make plays."

Northern Colorado will hit the road next week going on the tough Montana trip with the first leg of it starting Thursday at Montana with tip set for 7:00 p.m.