Recap: A Tale of Two Halves Hands @UNCO_MBB Second Defeat at Home for Season

Thursday, January 11

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

11-7, 2-3

Weber State University

10-6,3-1

Weber State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

1/11/2018 11:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—If you took a mirror to Northern Colorado's first half, you would see Weber State's second half as the switch handed UNC its third-straight defeat 78-74 to the Wildcats, Thursday night. UNC (11-7, 2-3) saw Weber State outshoot them in the second half 55.0 percent to UNC's 37.0 percent to propel WSU to their fifth straight win over Northern Colorado.

(1/13/2018) Men's Basketball vs Weber State

How It Happened
UNC received a gift in the first three minutes and it wasn't on the offensive side of the ball as Big Sky-leading scorer Jerrick Harding committed two charging fouls by the 17:07 mark in the first half. With him out, the Bears were able to hold the Wildcats to nine field goals in the first half. At the other end, UNC had even scoring up and down the roster. Northern Colorado was aggressive and got to the foul line nine times and a couple times on and one situations.

The Bears started to pull away at the 13:35 mark as they went on a 13-4 run which helped put the lead to nine. They kept the lead around nine until late in the half when a Chaz Glotta 3 gave the Bears their first double-digit advantage of the game. Northern Colorado charged into the locker room with a 39-29 lead and all of the momentum.

Andre Spight hit the first bucket of the second to hand UNC its biggest lead of the game at 12. Weber State slowly fought its way back into the game. WSU's Harding only scored six in the first half and had seven points in the second half alone by 14:03 left in the game.

UNC needed a spark and they got one from the fabulous freshman Jalen Sanders. The Valor Christian grad stole the ball and went coast to coast for the jam. Spight nailed a triple and drove for a layup to score five of the points on a 9-2 run by the Bears to recapture the nine-point lead. Weber responded with a 19-6 run and did not look back from there. UNC kept it within striking distance but could not get closer than three the rest of the way. Spight finished with 20 points to lead all Bears as JD and Sanders each had 12. Davis also pulled down the most boards for UNC with eight.

Game Changer
Jerrick Harding was riddled with two fouls very early and only scored six points in the first when he averages 21 per game and 25 per Big Sky game. Harding came out in the second and shot 6-of-10 from the field to put him right at his average, 21, for the game. The sophomore was the spark for the Wildcats in the comeback victory.

Key Stat
UNC held WSU to only one second-chance shot in the first which the Wildcats turned into two points. Weber missed 13 shots in the second half and gave themselves another opportunity on eight of those to convert them into nine points. For the game, Weber State put up 11 second-chance points while the Bears only had six. This was the difference in the game for Northern Colorado.

In Their Words

Head Coach Jeff Linder
Opening Statement
"It was a tale of two halves tonight. The first half I thought we played really well despite some of the foul trouble. I think we guarded really well. They are right there at the top of the conference for field goal percentage defense. We did a heck of a job in taking them out of what they wanted to do. They have too much substance, too much character and there are guys on that team that has won to the point that we knew they we going to show up in the second half. I talked to our guys about the mindset you have to have in order to beat a good team. They played in the Big Sky championship last year and returned a lot of those players. You have to come out and take your level to another level because you knew they were going to come out and play better. For whatever reason in the second half, we didn't have a lot of juice as we say. We pride ourselves on being the team that doesn't grab the wall and we probably grabbed the wall before they did. They missed 13 shots in the second and got eight offensive rebounds. At the half I think we were up seven or eight on the glass and then it gets flipped around in the second half then you lose the rebounding battle by eight. Give credit to Coach Rahe and Weber State. That is a program that we model a lot of stuff we do after. I have a lot of respect for him as he gave me my first (NCAA) Division I job. As I told our guys, we're close. The way the schedule is set up in the first five games, we've played five of the top six teams in the league. We've played the upper half guys in terms of the media and coaches poll. Our guys know we're close to being really good but we're also really close enough to just get beat. They have to decide as a group…can we take that next step to become a team that can really compete? We aren't talking about Big Sky championships. We are just talking about winning the next day and then try to win the next game."

On Their Run in the Second Half
"Jerrick Harding came into this game averaging 25 points per game in the league. If you don't guard him the right way, he made some tough shots. Now, there were also some breakdowns in our ball screen coverage that allowed him to get to his spots that we shouldn't have let him do but those possessions against good teams and good players then their better players stepped up in the second half. You have to give them credit for finishing and that's what we didn't do. We didn't finish. We didn't finish at the rim and we didn't finish at the foul line. You can't go 12 for 21 and miss the front end of two or three one-and-ones. You can't do that and win. We'll learn from it. We're close to being good or we're close to being very, very average."

Junior Guard Jordan Davis
On What Happened in the Second
"We didn't get stops. I felt like we could've put the game away at any time. We just didn't get stops in the second half. At the end of the day if we don't make shots, cool but if we make one shot for the entire game and they don't make a single basket, we win. We have to play defense and we didn't."

Redshirt Senior Guard Andre Spight
On What Happened in Second
"I wouldn't necessarily say a breakdown. It felt like we just took our foot off the gas pedal in the second half. We just let them play comfortably."

On the offensive issues in the second
"I don't think they would rather run and go with us because we get up and down the floor a little faster. We just didn't have enough "oomph". The first half, we were playing together but in the second half, we were just flat."

Notable Stats

UNC allowed WSU to toe the charity stripe 35 times and they hit 25 of them but on the flipside, the Bears only hit 12 of their 21 free-throw attempts.
Northern Colorado was in foul trouble the whole game as they committed 26 total fouls which equal their season-high against UNLV (12/22/17) which was also a close game as UNLV won 94-91.
The Bears forced more turnovers, had more assists and more steals in the game but only scored nine points off turnovers.

What's Next
UNC's three-game homestand continues on Saturday when Idaho State comes to town. Tipoff between the Bears and Bengals is set for 2 pm. Northern Colorado is not just welcoming ISU to town, but also some special guests from the Colorado Rockies.

Fans who attend the free Colorado Rockies Caravan in the Campus Recreation Center from 1-2pm can pick up a coupon good for $5 tickets to the basketball game plus fees. This offer is open only those who attend the Caravan and fans need the physical coupon to redeem the deal. Fans at the game will have a chance to compete in contests against the Rockies to win autographed items through halftime.

Tickets to the game and all UNC Athletic events can be purchased at the UNC Box Office, open from 10 am – 6 pm, by calling 970-351-4849 or by visiting UNCBears.com/Tickets

To stay up to date on all things UNC men's basketball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @unco_mbb.