@UNCBearsWBB Close Road Trip At Portland State Saturday

Saturday, February 27

Portland, Ore.

3:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Portland State

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

2/26/2016 1:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado women’s basketball closes its road schedule at Portland State Saturday

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – The Northern Colorado women's basketball team will take on Portland State for their final road game of the season Saturday afternoon. Despite the struggles on the road this year, UNC will be looking to end it on the right now and gain some momentum heading into the final week of regular season play.

For all the information on the game, visit Gameday Central.

Game Notes: Northern Colorado | Portland State

The Matchup
Saturday's game between Northern Colorado and Portland State is the lone game during the regular season between the teams.

Northern Colorado is coming off a 83-72 loss to Sacramento State on Thursday. Meanwhile, Portland State fell to North Dakota.

With a win, UNC will have snapped its three-game losing streak and still have an outside chance on the seven seed for the conference tournament.

Scouting the Vikings
Youth has been served for the Vikings during the 2015-16 this season, with 10 underclassman on the roster. Portland State is led by first year head coach Lynn Kennedy.

Sophomore Cici West is averaging a double-double for PSU, leading the team with 10.0 rebounds a game and second in scoring with 10.1 ppg.

Freshman Kain McNair is the only Viking to score more a game than West, averaging 11.2 per game. McNair and West are the lone players for PSU averaging double figures.

With all of the youth on the team there has been a large learning curve for Portland State, but the results are starting to show as they play their opponents closer as the year has progressed.

The Vikings are currently on an eight-game losing streak, with the most recent set back coming against North Dakota on Thursday, by the score of 75-62.

Last Time Against Portland State
Northern Colorado sent its seniors out in style last year, with a 90-50 victory over Portland State.

UNC had five players score in double figures, led by D'shara Strange's 19 points. Strange also became the school's leading rebounder during the game.

For PSU, Mikaela Rivard had almost half of the team's points with 23. No other Viking reached double digits.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado got out to a quick start against Sacramento State on Thursday night, but was unable to overcome a few scoring droughts falling to the Hornets 83-72. In the loss Rebecca Howell recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Against the Big Sky
UNC is 100-125 all-time against Big Sky opponents. Since joining the conference in the 2006-07 season, the Bears are 90-89 all-time. Last season the Bears went 12-6 in the conference to finish third.

On This Date
The Bears are 3-4 all time when playing on February 27th. All three wins for the Bears have come on the road though, with the most recent happening in 2012 at Northern Arizona. It has been two years since UNC played on the 27th, falling at Eastern Washington 67-61.

Month of February
Northern Colorado had a historic February last season, tying a program record with seven wins in the month and going 7-1 overall. As a program the Bears are 148-167 during the second month of the year.

Veteran Leadership
Both Kyleigh Hiser and Rebecca Howell have shown their veteran leadership as of late, and it showed on Thursday against Sacramento State. Hiser and Howell combined for 29 points and 15 rebounds in the game. Hiser lead the team with 19 points, while Howell had her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Kyleigh Hiser has become a valuable player off the bench for UNC. Over the past four games she is averaging 11.8 points a game, while shooting 50.0 percent.

Senior Rebecca Howell has become a force inside for UNC. Having a three game stretch from 2/4-2/11 averaging 15.7 points and 4.0 rebounds on 61.8 percent shooting. Against Weber State she set a new career-high with 18 points scored.

Nail Biter
It was another nail biter for Northern Colorado last Saturday against North Dakota. Kourteney Zadina hit the possible game winning three with 0:06 left, but UND was fouled with 0:01 left and made both free throws to sneak away with the 59-58 win.

UNC had a recent three game stretch with two of the three going into overtime. In those two OT games, UNC has gone 1-1, falling to Weber State and defeating Idaho.

When Northern Colorado played at Weber State. The Bears and Wildcats played in the longest game in program history going to three overtimes. The previous longest was a double-overtime game against North Dakota State on January 3, 2000. Northern Colorado also lost that game by three.

For the season, the Bears have been in eight games decided by four points or less, compiling a 4-5 record in them.

#RoadtoReno
New this year the Big Sky Conference will be headed to Reno, Nevada for both the men's and women's tournament. The #RoadToReno will begin on New Year's Eve and take place over March 7-13 for the women's tournament.

If the season were to end today, UNC would be playing in the opening round as the No. 8 seed against No. 9 seed Idaho State. The Bears will most likely be in the 8-9 game, but by winning out and Sacramento State losing out they still have a shot at the No. 7 seed.

UNC's Swiss Army Knife
Savannah Scott has turned into UNC's Swiss army knife this year, doing it all for the Bears. She leads the team in points (9.9), rebounds (4.8) and steals (2.0) while also being second in assists (2.6).

On February 4th she recorded her first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in UNC's game at Weber State.

Savvy Taking Off
Redshirt freshman Savannah Smith has become a key player off the bench for UNC recently. She had a career high 20 points against Southern Utah (1/21) and tied it at Weber State (2/4) and has scored in double figures in all but one game since the SUU game. Over that nine game stretch she is averaging 14.3 points on 42.2 percent shooting, including hitting on 21 3-pointers.

D-D-D-Defense
The Bears have really stepped it up defensively in Big Sky play. In the team's Big Sky games, Northern Colorado is holding teams to just 61.9 points a game, ranking second in the conference. Which is 2.2 points behind Idaho State.

UNC put the clamps down on defense on January 7th against Idaho State in the second half. For the half the Bears made a stop on 24 of Idaho State's 31 possessions. They also held ISU to just two points in the third quarter and 1-of-12 shooting. The Bengals were held scoreless for an 11:06 period allowing UNC to come back and take a seven point lead.

Against Montana State, defense once again proved to be important in UNC's comeback attempt. In the third quarter of the game, the Bears held the Bobcats to just 2-13 shooting and six points overall.

The Bears defense had its best performance to date against Southern Utah (1/21). Not only did they hold the T-Birds to 44 points, but they forced 21 turnovers, 10 via steals and held them to 28.6 percent shooting.

Against Idaho on February 11th, UNC's defense once again proved to be valuable holding Idaho to just 7 3-pointers, which was below its season average of 10.5. The Bears also forced the Vandals into 18 turnovers.

Setting the Bar High
The Bears have been setting a bunch of new career-highs recently. Savannah Scott has set new career-highs in three different categories over the last five games in assists, 10 vs NAU (1/23), steals, six vs SUU (1/21), and rebounds, 10 vs WSU (2/4). Scott is not the only Savannah setting career-highs, Savannah Smith has scored 20 points twice, first vs Southern Utah and then against Weber State. She also grabbed a career high six rebounds against SUU. Finally Kianna Williams and Rebecca Howell set new highs of their own against Weber State. Williams grabbed 10 rebounds in the game and Howell scored 18 points.

Road Woes
Northern Colorado hopes its road woes this season are over after picking up the victory at Idaho State on Saturday. UNC has struggled on the road this season going 2-10 in true road games. The Bears are averaging 58.3 points a game way from Bank of Colorado Arena and allowing opponents to score 64.7. In the team's 11 road games, opponents have outshot UNC .427-to-.383.

Comeback Week
Northern Colorado had a pair of comeback victories to open home conference play. Against Idaho State UNC had its second biggest comeback as a program after overcoming a 14 point deficit. Kourteney Zadina hit the game-winning shot with 1.9 seconds left to secure the win. Against Weber State on that Saturday UNC once again overcame a double figure deficit. This one of the 12 point variety when Savannah Scott hit the game winner as time expired.

Finding Their Roles
Northern Colorado seems to be settling into its roles on the team as conference play has started. While Kourteney Zadina and Kyleigh Hiser are looked at as sharp shooters, Savannah Scott and Kianna Williams have stepped up as stat sheet stuffers. Another couple roles that have been well defined for the team are the solid inside presence of Rebecca Howell and Courtney Smith on both ends of the court.

From Downtown
The Bears have been feeling it from behind the arc this season averaging 8.0 made threes a game. That ranks tied for 15th best in the nation, but only third best in the Big Sky. Both Idaho (3rd) and Sacramento State (1st) are ahead of UNC.

Valuing the Ball
Once again this year UNC is valuing the rock, and forcing teams into turnovers. They rank 46th in the country and fifth in the Big Sky with a 1.06 assist-turnover ratio.

RPI Report
UNC is ranked 186 as of 2/26, sixth best in the Big Sky. North Dakota is the highest at 117.

What's on Deck?
The Bears come home for their final two home games of the season hosting the Montana schools, starting with Montana State Thursday night.

Around the Den
Men's basketball closes out its home schedule hosting Sacra Portland State on Saturday.

Swim and Dive competes in the WAC Championships in Houston starting on Wednesday, and running through Saturday.

It is also championship week for indoor track and field. They will compete in the Big Sky Championships Thursday through Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.

Baseball continues its early season road trip at Cal State Northridge for four games over the weekend.

Both men's and women's tennis will be in Portland, Oregon this weekend for a pair of matches. Each team will play Portland State, while the men will also take on Portland, and the women face Seattle.