@unco_mbb Wins Handily at Southern Utah 89-71

Saturday, January 28

Cedar City, UT

4:00 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

7-14 (3-7)

Southern Utah University

4-18 (2-7)

Northern Colorado

Southern Utah

Photo by: Southern Utah Athletics

1/28/2017 7:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kobee Stalder, UNCBears.com

Box Score

CEDAR CITY, Utah - DJ Miles and Jordan Davis combined for 54 points on Saturday afternoon as Northern Colorado (8-13, 4-6 Big Sky) blew by Southern Utah (4-18, 2-7 Big Sky) 89-71.

Miles paced the Bears with 28 points, while Davis poured in 24 in the win that snapped UNC's five-game losing skid.

How It Happened:
The Bears got into a rhythm early offensively and sustained it for the entire game. Back-to-back three-balls from redshirt freshman guard, Jonah Radebaugh and senior forward, Jon'te Dotson sparked a 10-0 run just eight minutes into the first half, giving the team a 17-9 lead over the Thunderbirds.

With 8:11 remaining until the break, Northern Colorado adventured on another streak, this one of an 11-0 fashion to extend the advantage into double figures, 30-18. During the run, Miles chipped in seven of the 11 points.

UNC's lead never dipped below eight points for the remainder of the period as Davis banged in a three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Bears into the locker room up by 12, 40-28 over SUU.

Unconscious is the best way to describe Northern Colorado's shooting in the second half as the Bears went 8-of-11 (72%) from beyond the arc and 15-of-24 (62%) from the floor.

The lead grew to 21 points (59-38) after another 11-0 run by UNC, and Southern Utah was never able to cut it down to more than 17 in the final 20 minutes of play.

Radebaugh and Miles knocked down a three each on consecutive possessions, to keep the Bears on top by 21 (72-51) with 6:11 remaining on the clock.

The final dagger was a redshirt sophomore, Chaz Glotta trey with 1:54 to play, making it an 83-61 ball game.

Miles erupted for 18 of his 28 points in the second half, going 3-of-5 from downtown and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Davis recorded 15 of his 24 in the first half and also added a team-high six assists.

Radebaugh and Glotta joined Miles and Davis in double figures, both recording 11 points in the win.

UNC's defense kept Southern Utah in check all evening, holding the T-birds to 40% (22-of-55) from the field and 40% (9-of-22) from the perimeter.

Randy Onwuasor was the top scorer for SUU, finishing with 16 points.

Game Changer:
DJ Miles got open looks all afternoon outside the arc and made them count. Miles finished an impressive 5-of-7 (71%) from three-point land and 11-of-12 (91%) from the free throw line in his 28-point performance.

Key Stat:
The Bears forced 18 Southern Utah turnovers, which resulted in 23 points on the other end for UNC.

In Their Words:
Head Coach, Jeff Linder
"After a tough night at Northern Arizona, the guys fought back and followed the game plan exactly how we wanted it to go and came away with a good win. I thought we did what we talked about in practice yesterday and what we talked about before the game. The game plan was to see if we could get the ball to the third, fourth or fifth side. We moved the ball to get six, seven or eight passes in a possession and really tried to stretch them out. I thought our guys did a good job of that and this was one of our better offensive performances in recent memory."

"Give credit to Chaz Glotta, he was the defensive player of the game. [Randy] Onwuasor had 16 points and Jonah did a tremendous job guarding him and made him earn every point he got, but Chaz held their second leading scorer, James McGee, to just two points. He did a great job of fighting through the screens they like to set and didn't relax in transition."

Notables:
- Northern Colorado did a good job of drawing fouls as SUU had three players foul out before it was all said and done. The Bears got to the free throw line 36 times in the game, but converted on just 19 of those attempts.
- 42 of UNC's 89 points came on three-point makes as the Bears cashed in on 14-of-30 (46%) attempts from beyond the arc.
- Northern Colorado lost the rebound battle by one, 35-34, but did haul in 12 offensive boards, resulting in 11 second chance points.
- UNC improves to 4-1 in games played in Cedar City, and 8-2 overall in the series against Southern Utah.
- Chaz Glotta led the team in rebounding, hauling in seven boards.

Up Next:
The Bears will close out its three-game road stretch at North Dakota (12-8, 7-3 Big Sky) next Saturday, Feb. 4 in the team's lone game of the week. Tip against the Fighting Hawks is set for 1:00 p.m. (MT).