@unco_mbb Loses on Last Second Three at Denver

Saturday, December 17

Denver, CO

1:00 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

3-7

University of Denver

6-5

Northern Colorado

Denver

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

12/17/2016 3:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kobee Stalder, UNCBears.com

DENVER, Colo. – A Joe Rosga three with :03 seconds to play gave Denver (6-5, 0-0 Summit League) the edge over Northern Colorado (3-7, 0-0 Big Sky), 73-70 on Saturday afternoon at Magness Arena.

How It Happened:
It was a tight game in the first half as the Bears and Pioneers traded the lead five different times. UNC saw its first advantage (12-11) of the half thanks to back-to-back threes from junior guard, DJ Miles.

Miles, along with sophomore guard, Jordan Davis and redshirt sophomore forward, Ibrahim Sylla were the only three UNC players to score points in the first 20 minutes of the game.

With 10:08 to play, DU took its largest lead of the half (17-12) off a trey from Jake Krafka. From there, Northern Colorado adventured on a 9-2 run that took up five minutes to swing the score to 21-19 in favor of the Bears.

Northern Colroado put a little distance between themselves and the Pioneers toward the end of the half thanks to a Davis jumper with a minute remaining to make it 28-24 heading into the locker room.

Davis led UNC with 11 points, while Miles had 10 and Sylla pitched in seven points, along with five rebounds.

Despite the lead, the Bears, who have been able to shoot the three with ease this season, finished just 2-of-12 (17%) from beyond the arc in the first half, but did finish 40% (10-of-25) from the field.

UNC finally got scoring from other members of the roster in the second half, building its lead to as many as ten (38-28) in the second half.

Denver methodically chipped away at the scoreboard, going on a 14-4 run that took up seven minutes to swing the points in favor of the Pioneers 45-43 with 8:59 to go.

The remaining eight minutes of the game were mostly played at the free throw line as both teams combined for 44 attempts at the stripe in the second half.

The game saw five more ties in the remaining five minutes of the contest.

Two big shots from downtown by the hands of senior forward, Jon'te Dotson and redshirt sophomore guard, Chaz Glotta kept UNC in contention under a minute to go. Glotta's make made it a 67-65 game, advantage UNC, while Dotson's three tied the game up at 70 apiece.

With 20 seconds to go and the game tie, Rosga took the ball down the court and knocked down a three, his first made field goal of the afternoon to give Denver the three-point win over UNC.

Game Changer:
DU's Joe Rosga was 0-for-7 in the game before he made the game-winning three-pointer that handed UNC its sixth road loss of the season.

Key Stat:
DJ Miles was an impressive 14-of-15 at the free throw line in the loss. Miles finished with a game-high 22 points.

In Their Words:
Head Coach, Jeff Linder:

"Give credit to Denver, they're finding ways to win games here lately and that's not the first time that Rosga's done that. He did that against Weber State. They got it to him a little differently though, we were kind of expecting him to get it off the high-ball screen. That's on me though, we probably should have run someone else in and made someone else (on Denver) beat us."

"As I told the guys, that last play isn't the reason we lost the game. There were a bunch of just little mistakes over the course of the game that's going to happen with a young team. The turnovers were tough, but we're making progress."

"Credit to my coaching staff, Coach Smiley had this scout and he did a great job of making our guys understand their personnel and understand who could really beat us. At the end of the day, you're going to take your chances and make other (Denver) guys try to beat you. I thought our team did a pretty good job of following the scouting report and now we've put two games together against two really good offensive teams. We're making steps in the right direction and if we keep doing that, the scoreboard is going to take care of itself."

Notables:
- UNC finished the game 21-of-49 (42%)from the field and just 7-of-22 (31%) from three-point range.
- Northern Colorado had a season-high three players foul out of the game.
- Denver scored 19 points off of 18 Northern Colorado turnovers.
- The Bears held a 10-point lead on two different occasions in the second half
- UNC remains winless on the road at 0-6 in games away from Greeley.
- This was the third straight game between UNC and DU that has been decided by five points or less.
- The Bears out rebounded the Pioneers 37-35.
- Jordan Davis and Jon'te Dotson were the other two players to finish in double figures. Davis finished with 14 points and Dotson added 11.

Up Next:
Men's hoops will be back at home on Tuesday, Dec. 20 against UC Riverside to the non-conference season. Tickets are just $1 online with the promo code COUNTDOWN16. To purchase tickets click here.