Recap: Andre Spight Hits Buzzer Beater in OT to Propel @UNCO_MBB Past @UNDmbasketball

Saturday, January 20

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

13-7, 4-3

University of North Dakota

7-12, 2-5

OT 1

North Dakota

Northern Colorado

1/21/2018 12:52:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Players Interview after UND game Coach Linder Presser after North Dakota

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—It was no surprise in the game between Northern Colorado and North Dakota went to overtime for the third straight meeting Saturday night. Andre Spight provided the game-winning half-court buzzer-beater in the extra period to lift the Bears over the Fighting Hawks 94-91.

How It Happened
The Bears were not lackadaisical from their weeks rest between games as the blue and gold jumped out to an early 11-2 lead. Andre Spight scored the first bucket off the tip after only four seconds had elapsed on the clock. North Dakota responded with a six to nothing spurt to pull it within three. UND tied it at 15 and took its first lead at 24-22.

The Hawks kept the lead until UNC fought back to the lead on offensive rebounds, steals and just plain old good defense. The Bears closed out the first half on a 13-5 run when Spight and Jordan Davis took over to score 10 of those 13 points. Seven Bears were in the scoring column at the half led by Spight with 14 and Davis with 12 and UNC was up 46-37 going into the locker room.

North Dakota came out and put a 10-4 streak on the Bears to close the gap to three but UNC kept them at bay until late in regulation. The Hawks went on another big run (16-5) to tie it at 76 with just over two minutes to go. The two squads went back and forth until the end of the half.

In overtime, Conner Avants put in the first bucket but UNC responded with a Jalen Sanders jam assisted by Spight. All tied at 85, Geno Crandall hit the last of his 30 points by throwing in a triple. With UNC down by three, Spight took over from there for Northern Colorado. Six of his last nine points were from the free throw line.

All knotted at 91, UND had the ball. They drain the shot clock down to two seconds before Cortez Seales takes a shot with Jonah Radebaugh defending and it bounces around off the rim and Sanders grabs the board and outlets it to Spight. Dre dribbles a couple of times and launches from inside the Bears logo at half court and as the buzzer sounded the red light around the backboard lit up and the ball went through sending the crowd of 2,008 into a frenzy. Spight finished with 34 points, besting his career-high for the second straight game.

Game Changer
Well, this one should be obvious as Andre Spight wins the game on a last-second shot and set a new career-high. For the second straight game, Dre put up a career-high and tied his career-high for 3s made with seven. He also tied his high for free throws made (7) and surpassed his freebies attempted with nine. The redshirt senior also put his name in the record books for a single game:

Tied Tevin Svihovec for third in points for a single game with 34
Tied Chaz Glotta in fifth for FG attempts with 21
Tied himself, Will Figures and Sean Taibi for 3s made in a game with 7.
He is now third and fourth for 3's attempted with 16 vs Colorado and 14 tonight.

Key Stat
UNC was able to win the free throw battle tonight by hitting eight more than UND on seven more attempts from the foul line. The most important ones were the shots hit by Spight in overtime. Dre hit six of the Bears' 20 overall in overtime. Northern Colorado was able to keep everyone eligible also as North Dakota had two players foul out.

What They Said

Head Coach Jeff Linder
Opening Statement
"First off, what a game! It was one of those games where one second I was thinking…this is a hard way to make a living and the other second I was like man…I am going to sleep well tonight. If he misses that shot or we end up losing that game, I won't sleep for a long time. Give credit to the team because when they got slapped in the face with that put back and to go into overtime and to rally themselves. That was a step in the right direction for us as a team when things don't necessarily go your way and there is nothing you can do about it. You just have to move on. I told them to fix their face. Some of the guys had some looks on their faces like they already lost but at the end of the day, you still had five minutes. In those last five minutes, we got some stops when we need them and Jonah Radebaugh, that's why he is the defensive player of the year in the league, he had to get a stop there at the end and they isolated their best player on the floor (Seales) and Jonah sat down and guarded him. We got the rebound and we were prepared for that situation. Even though I had one timeout, we wanted to push the ball. If I call a timeout in that situation, we aren't going to get a better shot. Dre knew the ball was going to be in his hands. I thought he actually might have shot it too soon but it was a rhythm shot and he is just a shot maker. He put us on his back in overtime. He made them pay. Credit to him and credit to North Dakota and Conner Avants because he is a guy if he were six foot ten, he would be playing anywhere in the country. We scratched and clawed and made the free throws when they needed to make them and made timely shots. Now, we can celebrate that one and try to win a couple on the road."

Redshirt Senior Guard Andre Spight
On the game-winning shot and how times he's practiced the scenario
"Too many times. I think it is always going in. I used to get yelled at when I was little 'Go work on your game and stop shooting half-court shots'. I was always that kid messing around shooting it from distance. To see this one go in for the game winner, it means a lot. I looked up and I thought I had way more time than I did. When I looked up, I saw three seconds and I timed it in my head. I went one-thousand-one, one-thousand two and just shot it. They weren't expecting it as they were probably expecting me to go in a little deeper but a far shot is a far shot. You might as well shoot it from further. I don't even remember seeing it go in. It was all blank from there."

Notable Stats

UNC went their bench and they provided the spark when needed. The Bears outscored the Hawks 16-5 from reserves. Matej Drgon led UNC bench players with six.
UND is not a three-point shooting team so they usually outscore their opponents down low but UNC put in four more points in the paint (40-36).
Northern Colorado usually grabs nine offensive boards per game but tonight they crashed the offensive glass hard. They pulled down 12 o-boards and that turned into eight second-chance points.
The Bears chuck up 26 3's on average but launched 31 tonight and none were more important than the last one by Spight

What's Next
UNC will head back out on the road as they go to Moscow, Idaho to play the Vandals January 25th and follow that up with a trip to Cheney, Washington to face the Eastern Washington Eagles January 27th. Northern Colorado defeated both teams to start Big Sky play this season at home.

The Bears next home games will be February 1st and 3rd when they welcome Montana then Montana State to Bank of Colorado Arena. Tickets are available at UNCBears.com/Tickets, at the UNCBox Office M-F from 10 am-5pm or at 970.351.1679 during business hours.