@UNCBearsWBB Faces Idaho State in Opening Round of Big Sky Tournament

Monday, March 7

Reno, Nev.

1:05 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Idaho State

3/6/2016 9:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado women's basketball squares off against Idaho State in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

RENO, Nev. – Northern Colorado women's basketball will tip-off the 2016 Big Sky Conference Tournament Monday afternoon when they face Idaho State at 12:05 PT. The Bears are in the 8-9 game with the winner going on to play No. 1 Montana State on Wednesday afternoon.

For all of the game information, visit Gameday Central.

Game Notes: Northern Colorado | Idaho State

The Matchup
Northern Colorado and Idaho State will open the 2016 Big Sky Tournament on Monday afternoon when they play.

Both teams closed out theirs regular seasons at home, with UNC going 1-1 against Montana and Montana State, while ISU was 2-0 vs Idaho and Eastern Washington.

The Bears and Bengals faced each other twice this year, with UNC winning both by a combined three points.

Scouting the Bengals
Idaho State finished its season with two impressive wins last week, defeating Idaho 71-62 and Eastern Washington 89-68.

The Bengals are a stingy defensive team holding teams to just 63.3 points overall on the year, for fifth best in the conference. In Big Sky games though, they have the points against average, allowing just 61.5 a game.

Offensively, ISU is led by the trio of Apiphany Woods, Brooke Blair and Anna Policicchio. All three are averaging above 12.0 points a game, led by Wood's 12.6.

Wood's is also the team's leader in assists, dishing out 3.1 a game.

Idaho State is also one of the Big Sky's top rebounding teams, with a margin of +4.6, only behind North Dakota's amazing margin of +9.8.

Last Time Against Idaho State
Northern Colorado used a strong start from Katie Longwell and Rebecca Howell along with a last minute floater from Kianna Williams to earn the road win over Idaho State 61-59.

Longwell and Howell combined for 21 of the teams 38 first half points in the game to build UNC's lead.

ISU's stingy defense brought them back into the game, leading to Williams'' game winning floater with 0:24 left on the clock.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado finished its regular season on Friday when they hosted Montana. The Griz would defeat UNC 72-66 in overtime. As to be expected on senior night, seniors Kyleigh Hiser and Rebecca Howell led the team with 18 and 15 points each.

Against the Big Sky
UNC is 102-126 all-time against Big Sky opponents. Since joining the conference in the 2006-07 season, the Bears are 92-90 all-time. Last season the Bears went 12-6 in the conference to finish third.

Big Sky Tournament Experience
Until this year, only the top six or eight team's would only qualify for the Big Sky Tournament. During that time, UNC qualified for it five times in its nine years in the Big Sky. In those five trips, UNC has gone to the championship game three teams, and has a 5-5 record overall in it.

On This Date
The Bears are 1-7 all-time when playing on March 7th. The lone win came last year though when they closed out their regular season with a 67-56 victory over North Dakota.

March Madness
Every year as the calendar turns to March, madness ensues. For UNC they experienced plenty of madness last year. After falling in the Big Sky Tournament Championship, UNC qualified for the WNIT and went on the best postseason run in the program's history. The Bears would win at Colorado State, and defeat South Dakota at home before falling to eventual WNIT champion UCLA in the third round.

Overall through the program's history Northern Colorado is 29-48.

Veteran Leadership
Both Kyleigh Hiser and Rebecca Howell have shown their veteran leadership as of late, and it has helped down the stretch.

The capped off their final home game inside Bank of Colorado Arena by being the team's top two leading scorers. Hiser led the way with 18 points, including going 4-for-5 from downtown. Howell had 15 herself, including going 5-of-6 from the line.

Hiser and Howell led the Bears in the team's last road trip. Hiser averaged 20.0 points over the two games, including scoring 21 points against PSU. Meanwhile Howell had her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds against Sacramento State and averaged 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds over the two games.

Kyleigh Hiser has become a valuable player off the bench for UNC. Over the past six games she is averaging 14.9 points a game, while shooting 52.0 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.

With the Assist!
Northern Colorado has been using some great ball movement and team basketball recently, averaging 19.0 assists over the past four games

Katie Longwell has been leading that charge with 5.5 assists a game over that time span.

In last Wednesday's game against Montana State, the Bears had an assist on every made basket in the first half.

From downtown
The Bears have been feeling it from behind the arc this season averaging 8.2 made threes a game. That ranks15th best in the nation, but only third best in the Big Sky. Both Idaho (4th) and Sacramento State (1st) are ahead of UNC.

UNC tied a season high for made threes in a half on Wednesday night, hitting nine in the first half. It is the third time this year the Bears have achieved this feat. Northern Colorado also did so against Western State and Utah State.

Nail Biters
UNC ended its regular season with another nail biter, going to overtime with Montana, and falling to the Griz 72-66.

It was another nail bitter for Northern Colorado on February 20th 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.

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 (9.6), rebounds (4.8) and steals (1.8) while also being second in assists (2.7).

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

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 62.9 points a game, ranking second in the conference. Which is 1.4 points behind Idaho State. For the season, UNC leads the Big Sky allowing just 62.3 ppg.

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.

UNC turned up the pressure on defense on Saturday against Portland State. The Bears forced 22 Vikings turnovers leading to 22 points for Northern Colorado. 17 of those turnovers came via a steal. Every player who played in the game recorded at least one steal for the team, led by Katie Longwell and Kianna Williams three each.

Valuing the Ball
Once again this year UNC is valuing the rock, and forcing teams into turnovers. They rank 37th in the country and fourth in the Big Sky with a 1.09 assist-turnover ratio.

RPI Report
UNC is ranked 175 as of 3/6, sixth best in the Big Sky. North Dakota is the highest at 97.

What's on deck?
It's time to go to the Biggest Little City in the World for the Big Sky Conference Tournament. UNC will start the tournament that runs all week on Monday when they face Idaho State at 1:05 p.m. mountain time. Should the Bears continue to advance in the tournament, the quarterfinals will be on Wednesday, semis on Friday and Championship on Saturday.