Recap: Strong Start Propels @UNCO_MBB to a Big Sky Opening Win

Friday, December 29

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

10-4, 1-0

Eastern Washington University

5-9, 0-1

Eastern Washington

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

12/29/2017 11:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Six players score 95% of UNC's 88.

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—The Northern Colorado men opened up conference play with a huge win as they beat Eastern Washington 88-75 and never trailed in the game. The Bears move to 10-4 on the season and an all-important 1-0 to kick off Big Sky play with the help of six players scoring in double figures Friday night.

How It Happened
The temperature outside was warmer than expected and so was the shooting of the Bears as they hit five of their first six shots from the field to take the early 11-4 lead. The reigning Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year Jonah Radebaugh drew the tough assignment of guarding Bogdan Bliznyuk and held him to six first-half points and forced two turnovers on the Eagles' star.

Eastern Washington made a slight comeback but the Bears went outside than inside to balloon the lead to over 10 as UNC hit two 3's. Northern Colorado than played down low with two rim-rattling dunks. The Bears led at the half 37-30 led by Tanner Morgan with eight points and Jordan Davis had seven.

UNC began the second half just like the first with an 11-5 run and this spurt built the lead to 13 points with 16:30 left. EWU kept making a small run after a small run but they were answered every time by a Bear run of equal or greater value.

UNC swelled the lead to as much as 18 points and it was all the starters who provided the spark. Every starter and Anthony Johnson scored in double figures with Andre Spight leading the way with 21 and Jordan Davis finished with 17. Tanner Morgan scored a career-high (13) and tied a few other career bests in the win. Johnson and Radebaugh both had 11 while the freshman Jalen Sanders wrapped up the game with 10.

Game Changer
Andre Spight recorded his second double-double in three games with 21 points and 10 rebounds. In the game at Wyoming, the redshirt senior guard had 24 points and 10 assists. Dre' went 7-of-13 shooting and sank every free throw he attempted (7-7). Spight also had four assists and two steals in his 35 minutes.

Key Stat
For the first time this season, the Bears had all five starters score in double figures and the leading candidate for the sixth man of the year Johnson scored in double digits as well. These six players attributed 83 of UNC's 88 points in the win over Eastern Washington.

In Their Words

Head Coach Jeff Linder

Opening Statement
"I thought we did a really good job in leading up to this game in preparation. It was a quick turn around after the UNLV game as it wasn't much of a Christmas break for our guys but I thought we did a really good job with our approach in really understanding on how to guard this team. They are a dangerous team and their record is not indicative of how good they really are and they have been on the road quite a bit. They were a team that was home a lot last year and Coach Legans has to experience the backside of that in where he has to return those games. They are a team that had us on high alert especially after last year where they came in here and embarrassed us. Our guys remembered that and we wanted to come out and put our best foot forward and we did. The first one is always the hardest one in the conference and now we have to ready for a very good Idaho team that is coming in here after a big win in North Dakota."

On playing a team like EWU
"If you take your foot off the gas, they are dangerous. If you don't guard them the right way, they have four or five guys on the floor that can shoot the 3. Bodan (Bliznyuk) shot the 3 better this year. He can really manipulate the game and if you don't guard those other guys the right way, they can go in spurts. For our team to really lock in and stay focused on 75-80 defensive possessions, that won us the game."

Redshirt Senior Guard Andre Spight

On being a cohesive team
"We just have a collective unit vibe to us. We all go off each other. It is not just one guy who comes out and holds the load. We hold each other accountable. When everyone is playing great, it just feels good and the vibe is right."

On being in a comfort zone
"Our coaches did a great job in the scouting report in basically shutting down their 3's. I don't know how many they had tonight but I am sure it wasn't a lot*. We just control the game at the aspect of the floor on defense and after that we just did us."

*EWU averages 27.6 3's attempted per game and UNC held them to 18.

Junior Guard Jordan Davis

On going 7-of-7 at one point
"I really don't focus on stuff like that. If somebody is hot, they are going to keep going to that person. At the end of the day, I care about wins. I don't care if I go seven for seven or zero for 10 because if we win, I could care less."
On it being a week since they played

"Our mishaps in the game or the periods where we went cold, it is probably just the fact when we play Wyoming or UNLV if we didn't bring it all, we could mess around and get blown out by 20. That is how it went into today and we just played a little bit different team than playing UNLV."

Notable Stats

Tanner Morgan broke the 10-point barrier for a game with his career-high 13. The redshirt senior also beat his career best in field goals made (5) and tied his personal best for assists with 2.
UNC is known as a 3-point shooting team but when they need to they can score down low and they showed it in the win. The Bears outscored the Eagles 46-36 in the paint.
Northern Colorado held the good rebounding defense of EWU to only 21 defensive boards when they average 21 and beat the Eagles in total boards 37-29.
Jordan Davis at one point in the game was 7-of-7 from the field. JD finished only missing one shot (7-8).

What's Next
Northern Colorado will kick off the New Year on the road as they head up to Montana State on the 4th. The Bears will face the Bobcats in Bozeman with tipoff scheduled for 7 pm in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. UNC will stay in Montana and take I-90 Northwest to face the Montana Grizzlies January 6th at 7 pm.

The Bears will be back home for a three-game stretch starting January 11th as the Weber State Wildcats come to town. Idaho State visits Bank of Colorado Arena the 13th at 2 pm and the homestand finishes up the 20th with North Dakota starting at 7 pm. Tickets are available at UNCBears.com, at the UNC Box Office M-F from Noon-5 pm or at 970.351.1679 during business hours. January 2nd through the 5th the office is open from noon to 5 pm and the ticket office will be back to normal hours January 8th which is 10-5 pm.