University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Thursday, March 1
Portland, Ore.
9 pm
University of Northern Colorado
at
Portland State University
Photo by: Dean Popejoy
Preview: @UNCO_MBB Travels West for Final Two Games of Season
2/28/2018 7:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Bears will try to end season on five-game winning streak
Greeley, Colo.—The Northern Colorado men are jockeying for position in the Big Sky standings and looking to earn a bye in next week's conference tournament. UNC (19-10, 10-6 Big Sky) will start the final week of the season against Portland State (18-11, 8-8).
The game will take place and Lewis and Clark College since the Vikings' arena is currently under renovation. Tipoff is set for 9 pm Mountain Time and will be streamed on WatchBigSky.com and Pluto TV channel 232. Fans can listen in on 1310 KFKA and follow stats at UNCBears.com.
Opening Tip
The game will be the 27th time Portland State and Northern Colorado have met on the court. PSU leads the overall series 18-9 but UNC has won three of the last five matchups including both games last season.
The Bears won both games last year by a combined 17 points and were victorious in Portland by 14. The teams' first played in 1974 where PSU handed UNC a 107-76 defeat.
Competing For a Bye
UNC currently sits fifth in the Big Sky standings behind Eastern Washington by a game and Idaho by two games. If the Bears win both games and EWU/Idaho both lose their last two games, Northern Colorado will finish third and receive a bye in the BSC tournament and will not play until Thursday, March 8. UNC holds the tiebreaker with Idaho but Eastern Washington holds the tiebreaker with the Bears. Idaho and EWU play Northern Arizona and Southern Utah at home this week. The top four seeds in the Big Sky Tournament receive a bye.
Last Time Out
Northern Colorado was on its game and avoided overtime for the fourth-straight game vs the Fighting Hawks with the 79-66 win. UNC relied on a balanced attack led by Jonah Radebaugh to hand UND a defeat on Senior Day.
Last Time vs Portland State
All five starters for Northern Colorado finished in double figures as the Bears held off Portland State for an 87-84 victory. UNC was led by Jordan Davis who scored 25 points and Kai Edwards had a career-high of 18 against the Vikings.
History Book Changing by the Game
Jordan Davis has moved into seventh all-time for points in his career. JD has scored 1,360 points so far and is only three points behind Sean Taibi (2004-08) (1,363) for sixth place. Davis is also seventh in assists with 310 and is only three behind Carlos Martinez (1996-00) (313). The Las Vegas native has made 504 field goals in his career, which is seventh and nine behind Henry Clausen (1966-69) for sixth.
Andre Spight may not find his name in career totals for UNC but he will be at or near the top of many season records for Northern Colorado basketball. Spight is over the 600-point mark for the season at 618 points and this is only 69 points behind Beitzel for the single-season points record. UNC has two regular-season games left and at least one Big Sky Championship game which means he needs to average 23 points a game to tie Beitzel. Spight is now second for assists in a season with 108 and trails current teammate JD by 54.
Bear Tracks
Scouting Portland State
UNC's final game takes place in Sacramento when the Bears play the Hornets of Sacramento State Saturday, March 3rd starting at 8:05 pm Mountain Time.
After that, the Northern Colorado men will head to Reno for the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 6th through the 10th.
The game will take place and Lewis and Clark College since the Vikings' arena is currently under renovation. Tipoff is set for 9 pm Mountain Time and will be streamed on WatchBigSky.com and Pluto TV channel 232. Fans can listen in on 1310 KFKA and follow stats at UNCBears.com.
Opening Tip
The game will be the 27th time Portland State and Northern Colorado have met on the court. PSU leads the overall series 18-9 but UNC has won three of the last five matchups including both games last season.
The Bears won both games last year by a combined 17 points and were victorious in Portland by 14. The teams' first played in 1974 where PSU handed UNC a 107-76 defeat.
Competing For a Bye
UNC currently sits fifth in the Big Sky standings behind Eastern Washington by a game and Idaho by two games. If the Bears win both games and EWU/Idaho both lose their last two games, Northern Colorado will finish third and receive a bye in the BSC tournament and will not play until Thursday, March 8. UNC holds the tiebreaker with Idaho but Eastern Washington holds the tiebreaker with the Bears. Idaho and EWU play Northern Arizona and Southern Utah at home this week. The top four seeds in the Big Sky Tournament receive a bye.
Last Time Out
Northern Colorado was on its game and avoided overtime for the fourth-straight game vs the Fighting Hawks with the 79-66 win. UNC relied on a balanced attack led by Jonah Radebaugh to hand UND a defeat on Senior Day.
Last Time vs Portland State
All five starters for Northern Colorado finished in double figures as the Bears held off Portland State for an 87-84 victory. UNC was led by Jordan Davis who scored 25 points and Kai Edwards had a career-high of 18 against the Vikings.
History Book Changing by the Game
Jordan Davis has moved into seventh all-time for points in his career. JD has scored 1,360 points so far and is only three points behind Sean Taibi (2004-08) (1,363) for sixth place. Davis is also seventh in assists with 310 and is only three behind Carlos Martinez (1996-00) (313). The Las Vegas native has made 504 field goals in his career, which is seventh and nine behind Henry Clausen (1966-69) for sixth.
Andre Spight may not find his name in career totals for UNC but he will be at or near the top of many season records for Northern Colorado basketball. Spight is over the 600-point mark for the season at 618 points and this is only 69 points behind Beitzel for the single-season points record. UNC has two regular-season games left and at least one Big Sky Championship game which means he needs to average 23 points a game to tie Beitzel. Spight is now second for assists in a season with 108 and trails current teammate JD by 54.
Bear Tracks
- UNC ranks second in scoring for the season and first during the conference season among Big Sky schools. The Bears are outscoring their opponents by 7.7 points per game and that number has gone up over the last three games as Northern Colorado has won by 13, 17 and 35 points in the last three contests.
- With UNC shutting North Dakota out from 3, the Bears own the stingiest 3-point defensive team by only allowing their foes to hit 31.9 percent of their attempts beyond the arc.
- Northern Colorado is tied with Weber State for defensive rebounding average (27.9) and first in overall defensive rebounds with 808 for the season.
- Andre Spight has scored the most points in the Big Sky and the only player who is above 600 points for the season.
Scouting Portland State
- Barret Peery was named Portland State's new men's basketball coach on April 10, 2017. Peery takes over the Viking program as the 13th head coach in its 56-year playing history, and the sixth since Portland State joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996-97.
Peery most recently was the Associate Head Coach at Santa Clara. He assisted first-year Head Coach Herb Sendek in the revival of the Broncos program as it had its first winning season in four years and placed fourth in the West Coast Conference. - PSU is 18-11 and 8-8 in conference play but has won its last three games. The Vikings can score and at one point in the season, they were averaging over 90 points in a game. They have slowed down in Big Sky play and now average 86.2 per contest.
- Deontae North is the Vikings leading scorer at 21.1 points per game but has not played the last nine games. Coach Peery said North was "suspended from the team until further notice." In his absence, Bryce Canda has picked up the slack, averaging 14.2 points per game and is the only Viking to start every game of the season.
- PSU has the best turnover margin (+5.5) and assists to turnover ratio in the league (1.3).
- Look for a fierce battle on the glass when the Vikings have the ball as the game will pit the best defensive rebounding team (UNC) and offensive rebounding team (PSU). Portland State gives themselves second chances on average of 14.8 times per game.
- The 3-point defense of the Bears will be put to the test on Wednesday, as PSU is second in the Big Sky for 3s made per game. The Vikings make 9.4 triples per game.
- Portland State boasts the leading assist man for the Big Sky in Holland Woods who averages 5.7 dimes per game. This number is more than two more per game than any other player in the Big Sky.
- Canda, Woods and Michael Mayhew are all in the top 10 for steals in the Big Sky. In order, they average 1.8, 1.4 and 1.3 steals per game.
- Portland State is tied with Idaho State for sixth in the league with both teams' having 8-8 records in the Big Sky. PSU has the tiebreaker since they beat the Bengals in both meetings this season. As of Thursday, the Vikings would play Sacramento State in the first round of the BSC tourney.
UNC's final game takes place in Sacramento when the Bears play the Hornets of Sacramento State Saturday, March 3rd starting at 8:05 pm Mountain Time.
After that, the Northern Colorado men will head to Reno for the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 6th through the 10th.
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