University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Friday, November 10
Boulder, Colo.
6 pm
University of Northern Colorado
51
at
66
University of Colorado
Kai Edwards gets the board and bucket
Photo by: Dean Popejoy
Recap: Despite Second-Half Run @UNCO_MBB Falls to Colorado in Season Opener
11/10/2017 11:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Bears shot themselves out of a slump in the second half but the Buffaloes pulled away with a run of their own.
8
November 10, 2017
Boulder, Colo. – Northern Colorado went into Boulder a more experienced team but the talent of Colorado overtook UNC late in the second half to win 66-51.  Andre Spight scored ten of his game high 19 in the second but the Buffaloes went on a 22-7 run to end the game and put the Bears away in the season opener.
UNC came out firing from behind the arc by shooting 19 threes in the first half but only hitting two of them. Â The big battle was turnovers as the Bears committed ten which led to 12 Colorado points. Â Most of those were dribbling or travelling violations.
The Bears trailed by as much as 11 and tied it once but never led in the first or the whole game. They tied it three times in the second and one of those times was on the 13-0 run led by Spight and Johnson who each scored five points during that run. Â
UNC played most of the game without Jordan Davis who only played 17 minutes because he was in foul trouble starting early. Davis picked up his third foul with 5:25 to go in the first. Â He did start the second half but picked up his fourth a minute and a half into the second half. JD didn't come back into the game until there was less than eight minutes in the game. Tanner Morgan also was in foul trouble early and fouled out with 3:42 left in the game.
In the midst of the CU 22-7 run, UNC did have a couple three-point shots go half-way down the bucket but rimmed out. The Bears finished 6-37 (16.2%) from behind the line.Â
Behind Spight, Jonah Radebaugh scored 11 while Jordan Davis did make the most of his time on the court by scoring ten which pulls him within 90 points of 1,000 for his career at Northern Colorado.
What They Said:
Head Coach Jeff Linder
On the run to start the second half
"We did a better job on understand how they were guarding us. With it being the first game of the year, we hadn't seen many teams that are going to switch one through five on the ball screens. They had a good plan and they kind of stymied us and made us play on-on-one more than we are accustom to…so in the second half we did a better job moving the ball and how to attack the switches and got some good looks. It was a 44-44 game going into the under eight media timeout and their resiliency overcame ours. We were up seven on the glass at that point and they ended up plus seven. Credit to them on coming out and making us do what we didn't want to do and take us out of what we wanted to do. It is something we are going to learn from and make our way to Monday."
On playing CSU and CU so close together
"CSU and CU are two different teams. The team we had against Colorado State was different than the team we had tonight but sometimes when you are in an environment like this…we might have a little more experienced team or it looks like that on paper. We have three guys who haven't been in this environment in over a year  and we have some freshman who haven't been in this environment so it is going to be a learning experience. We are going to have to figure it out quickly because we have a good UC-Davis team Monday but we'll figure it out sooner or later."
Senior Guard Andre Spight
On the second half run
"We just started moving the ball and trusting each other. We feel like when we get that movement side to side laterally they did not do as well guarding us but they are big bodies so when we play one-on-one basketball…we're stagnant when they load up and they are tough to attack."
Stat to Know
Even though UNC has the experience advantage, CU outscored the Bears 24-4 off the bench. Jalen Sanders and Kai Edwards were only two non-starters to put the ball in the hoop for Northern Colorado. Â On the other hand, the Buffaloes had five players off the bench to score in the opener. Â CU went 9-18 from those bench players.Â
Game NotesÂ
-UNC had 13 total turnovers in the game that resulted in 14 points for CU
-This was the 39th time these two Front Range teams have faced each other and CU increases their series lead to 21-18 with the 66-51 win
-The Bears held the rebounding edge at the end of the first half 21-16 but lost the battle 45-38
-UNC struggled from the field shooting only 32.3% (20-of-62) from the field. Anthony Johnson and Andre Spight took 41 of those 62 shots.
What's Next
The men's basketball team will head back to Greeley for its home opener Monday, November 13th against UC-Davis. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00pm at Bank of Colorado Arena. Â Follow all the news on the Bears men's team on Twitter @unco_mbb
Â
November 10, 2017
Boulder, Colo. – Northern Colorado went into Boulder a more experienced team but the talent of Colorado overtook UNC late in the second half to win 66-51.  Andre Spight scored ten of his game high 19 in the second but the Buffaloes went on a 22-7 run to end the game and put the Bears away in the season opener.
UNC came out firing from behind the arc by shooting 19 threes in the first half but only hitting two of them. Â The big battle was turnovers as the Bears committed ten which led to 12 Colorado points. Â Most of those were dribbling or travelling violations.
The Bears trailed by as much as 11 and tied it once but never led in the first or the whole game. They tied it three times in the second and one of those times was on the 13-0 run led by Spight and Johnson who each scored five points during that run. Â
UNC played most of the game without Jordan Davis who only played 17 minutes because he was in foul trouble starting early. Davis picked up his third foul with 5:25 to go in the first. Â He did start the second half but picked up his fourth a minute and a half into the second half. JD didn't come back into the game until there was less than eight minutes in the game. Tanner Morgan also was in foul trouble early and fouled out with 3:42 left in the game.
In the midst of the CU 22-7 run, UNC did have a couple three-point shots go half-way down the bucket but rimmed out. The Bears finished 6-37 (16.2%) from behind the line.Â
Behind Spight, Jonah Radebaugh scored 11 while Jordan Davis did make the most of his time on the court by scoring ten which pulls him within 90 points of 1,000 for his career at Northern Colorado.
What They Said:
Head Coach Jeff Linder
On the run to start the second half
"We did a better job on understand how they were guarding us. With it being the first game of the year, we hadn't seen many teams that are going to switch one through five on the ball screens. They had a good plan and they kind of stymied us and made us play on-on-one more than we are accustom to…so in the second half we did a better job moving the ball and how to attack the switches and got some good looks. It was a 44-44 game going into the under eight media timeout and their resiliency overcame ours. We were up seven on the glass at that point and they ended up plus seven. Credit to them on coming out and making us do what we didn't want to do and take us out of what we wanted to do. It is something we are going to learn from and make our way to Monday."
On playing CSU and CU so close together
"CSU and CU are two different teams. The team we had against Colorado State was different than the team we had tonight but sometimes when you are in an environment like this…we might have a little more experienced team or it looks like that on paper. We have three guys who haven't been in this environment in over a year  and we have some freshman who haven't been in this environment so it is going to be a learning experience. We are going to have to figure it out quickly because we have a good UC-Davis team Monday but we'll figure it out sooner or later."
Senior Guard Andre Spight
On the second half run
"We just started moving the ball and trusting each other. We feel like when we get that movement side to side laterally they did not do as well guarding us but they are big bodies so when we play one-on-one basketball…we're stagnant when they load up and they are tough to attack."
Stat to Know
Even though UNC has the experience advantage, CU outscored the Bears 24-4 off the bench. Jalen Sanders and Kai Edwards were only two non-starters to put the ball in the hoop for Northern Colorado. Â On the other hand, the Buffaloes had five players off the bench to score in the opener. Â CU went 9-18 from those bench players.Â
Game NotesÂ
-UNC had 13 total turnovers in the game that resulted in 14 points for CU
-This was the 39th time these two Front Range teams have faced each other and CU increases their series lead to 21-18 with the 66-51 win
-The Bears held the rebounding edge at the end of the first half 21-16 but lost the battle 45-38
-UNC struggled from the field shooting only 32.3% (20-of-62) from the field. Anthony Johnson and Andre Spight took 41 of those 62 shots.
What's Next
The men's basketball team will head back to Greeley for its home opener Monday, November 13th against UC-Davis. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00pm at Bank of Colorado Arena. Â Follow all the news on the Bears men's team on Twitter @unco_mbb
Â
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