Preview: @UNCO_MBB Go for Fourth in a Row @EWUMBB

Saturday, January 27

Cheney, Wash.

3:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Eastern Washington University

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Photo by: Dean Popejoy

1/26/2018 4:05:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Notes for UNC at Eastern Washington

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—The Northern Colorado men picked up their first conference road win of the season and seem to be playing a complete team. UNC's (14-7, 5-3) next adventure is another road contest and this time it is in Cheney, Washington to face Eastern Washington (10-11, 5-3).

Tipoff is scheduled for 3 pm Mountain Time and is the Eleven Sports game of the week. Check with your cable/satellite TV provider on where you can find Eleven Sports in your channel lineup. Live stats will be available on UNCBears.com. You can listen in to 1310 KFKA and if your provider does not carry Eleven Sports, you can watch on Pluto TV.

Opening Tip
This will be the 23^rd overall meeting between the two teams. The series is all knotted at 11 wins each so UNC will be able to take the lead in the series with their fourth-straight win. Northern Colorado has been to Cheney ten times and holds a 3-7 record at the Eagles' home court. The Bears' last win at Reese Court was during the 2009-10 season when they handed EWU a 74-71 defeat.

Balanced Approach
Northern Colorado played its most complete game of the year and swept the season series over Idaho with a convincing 80-63 win in Moscow. Northern Colorado finished the game with the biggest team win of the year as five Bears scored in double digits and the starting five each had at least four rebounds. After Glotta, Spight and Radebaugh each scored 13 points while Dre almost picked up his third double-double with nine assists.

Last Time vs Eastern Washington
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. 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.

Record-Book Watch
Jordan Davis surpassed the 1,200 points barrier recently and now has 1,233 in his career with just over a season. He needs three points to pass Henry Clausen (1966-69) (1,235) for 10th.The Las Vegas native's next rung on the ladder after 10^th is Will Figures (2006-10) who sits in ninth with 1,287 points. Davis is also now eighth all-time in assists (292) for UNC and trails Troy Graefe (1983-85) by 7 for seventh.

Against the Big Sky
UNC joined the Big Sky in the 2006-07 season and has gone 96-102. Overall, the team is 144-210 against Big Sky Schools.

Bear Tracks

UNC is moving closer and closer to being the best scoring offense in the Big Sky. Northern Colorado is .2 points away from averaging 80 points a game. They trail Portland State by 9.5 for the highest scoring team in the league.
The Bears improved their 3-point field goal defense by only allowing Idaho to shoot 25% from beyond the arc. UNC is now third in the league and only allow their opponents to hit 33.4%.
The blue and gold continue to limit their opponents on the offensive boards. UNC pulls down almost 28 defensive boards per game which is third in the league.
The Bears have hit the second most 3's overall and during the conference. In both areas, UNC hits over nine 3's a game. On average, this means 33% of the points scored are from deep.
Since the conference season started, Andre Spight is the leading scorer in the Big Sky by averaging 23.1 points per game and the redshirt senior is third overall on the season with 19.9ppg.
Spight is also sharing with his teammates and it shows as he sits third in assists for the conference overall (3.7apg) and tied for second in just Big Sky games (4.5).
With his 5-5 performance against Idaho, Chaz Glotta shoots 58.8% from deep in conference play and is third in Big Sky play in this category.
Jonah Radebaugh continues to be the iron man of the Big Sky as he has played the most minutes all season (743 of a possible 840). Radebaugh is 58^th in the nation for minutes played.

Scouting Eastern Washington

Shantay Legans is in his inaugural season as the head coach of the Eagles. Legans spent the last eight years as an assistant coach for EWU. While at Eastern, Legans has helped developed a quartet of All-Big Sky Conference guards in Glen Dean, Cliff Colimon, Tyler Harvey, and Austin McBroom. Dean was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2010 and an All-BSC guard in 2011; Colimon earned first-team all-league and All-Big Sky Conference Tournament honors as a senior in 2012.
Since the conference opener at Bank of Colorado Arena, EWU has gone 5-2 and their two losses were by a combined 11 points.
The Eagles have one the best players in the Big Sky in Bogdan Bliznyuk who averages 19.1 points per game. He also leads the team in assists with 78 and is second in rebounds with 6.3 per game. He is the fourth leading scorer in the conference overall and since league play started. Bliznyuk is also tied with Spight for second in assists. Since the Big Sky season started Bliznyuk has hit 97% of his free throws and he is hitting 88% of his freebies for the season.
The Eagles play a lot of close games as EWU has only scored 49 more points than their opponents on the season.
Eastern Washington prefers home cooking this year as they have a 6-1 record at Reese Court. The one loss was against Idaho in a low-scoring 58-51 loss where Bliznyuk only scored 14 points.
EWU is the best in the conference in hitting their free throws. The Eagles have nailed 83.8% in conference play and 76.4% overall.

What's Next
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.