@unco_mbb Shoots Lights Out in Win Over Portland State

Thursday, March 2

Greeley, CO

7:00 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

10-18, 6-11BSC

Portland State University

14-14, 7-10BSC

Portland State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

3/2/2017 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kobee Stalder, UNCBears.com

BOX SCORE

GREELEY, Colo. – All five starters for Northern Colorado (10-18, 6-11 Big Sky) finished in double figures as the Bears held off Portland State (14-14, 7-10 Big Sky) for an 87-84 victory on Thursday night.

How It Happened:
It was an evening for shooters as the Bears finished a season-best 57% from the field.

Junior guard, DJ Miles had the hot hand for the team in the first half, scoring all 12 of his points in the first 20 minutes of action, including going a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line.

An old-fashioned three-point play from the junior pushed the Bears up by five (17-12) with 13:27 to play, the largest cushion UNC could hold over the next eight minutes of the half.

A gritty Portland State team kept the game within single-digits until a late 11-4 run by Northern Colorado ballooned the team's advantage to 37-28 with under five minutes to play until the intermission.

Back-to-back three-balls from redshirt sophomore guard, Chaz Glotta officially tipped the Bears' lead to double digits (40-30) as the team played with the 10-point advantage until a pair of free throws from the Viks' at the end of the half made it a 44-36 contest.

UNC was able to pile on its lead in the second half and got up by as many as 14 (57-43) points after a redshirt freshman guard, Jonah Radebaugh lay-in.

PSU remained poised thought as the minutes continued to fall off the clock, methodically whittling down The Bears' advantage.

With 2:12 to play, things got interesting in Bank of Colorado Arena as Portland State's Bryce Canda quieted the crowd of 1,282 with a huge make from beyond the arc to tie the game up at 81-81.

After a senior forward, Jon'te Dotson bucket, Portland State took its first lead of the game since early on in the first half off another three-pointer, this one from Zach Gengler to go up 84-83 just thirty seconds later.

After a Dotson block on the defensive end, sophomore guard, Jordan Davis put the cherry on top of his night, driving coast-to-coast to give UNC the go-ahead bucket.

A missed shot by Portland State forced them to foul and Dotson knocked down two makes at the stripe give Northern Colorado an 87-84 win. The Vikings had one last possession to tie the game, but turned it over, sealing the win for the Bears.

Davis led all scorers in the win with 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting, to go along with his nine rebounds, six assists and two steals and one block.

Freshman forward, Kai Edwards finished with a career-high 18 points in the win, Radebaugh and Miles each finished with 12, with Dotson rounding out the group with 10 points.

Game Changer:
Jordan Davis scored 15 of his 25 points in the second half, including the go-ahead basket with 15 seconds to play. With the 11 made field goals, Davis now has 204 on the season, setting a new UNC Division I single-season program record for made FGs.

Key Stat:
The team's shooting percentage was key in the win. UNC shot 56.7% in the first half and 59.3% in the second half, finishing 33-of-57 for the night.

In Their Words:
Head Coach, Jeff Linder:
"I'm proud of our guys for finding a way to win the game, I think that this is hopefully a step in the right direction as we look toward next year, is getting in these close games and finding ways to win. That's what good teams have to do if they want to win the league, is to find ways to win close games."

On Jordan Davis' play
"I challenged Jordan [Davis] to see if he could be a guy that can finish games for us. I got on him after he gave up that one ball late, but that has to do with not having a lot of depth and playing a limited number of guys – especially the way Portland State was playing it was hard to keep up our ball movement. I'm proud of JD for being able to finish that game off tonight and hopefully that'll help him take the next step of being one of the best players in the western United States."

Sophomore guard, Jordan Davis

On his go-ahead shot
"Coach challenges me in practice all the time to step up. In multiple games this season I needed to step up and I didn't. I've been in these situations before and Coach tells me that if I want to be great I have to learn to finish games because all the greats step up and no one can guard them in late-game situations. I just think about that and when the time comes I try to make things happen."

Notables:

UNC snapped a five-game losing streak at home with the win. On the year the team is now 5-6 in Greeley.
The Bears won the rebound battle over the Vikings 41-31.
Northern Colorado finished just 5-of-21 (23.8%) from beyond the arc, including going 1-of-9 (11.1%) in the second half.
All five starters in the win also recorded at least five or more rebounds, along with all of them scoring 10 points or more.
Jordan Davis secured his 14^th 20-point game of the season.

Up Next:
UNC will close out the 2016-17 season with Sacramento State on Saturday, Mar. 4 at 2:00 p.m. The Hornets are coming off a 57-53 win at North Dakota on Thursday.