Preview: @UNCO_MBB Look to Win Five Straight to End Season

Saturday, March 3

Sacramento, Calif.

8:05 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Sacramento State

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Photo by: Dean Popejoy

3/2/2018 6:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball

UNC Game Notes Sac State Notes

The Bears finish up the season in Sacramento before conference tourney

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—The Northern Colorado men are now the proud owners of a 20-win season after their win over Portland State and now the Bears look to end the year with their fifth-straight victory. UNC (20-10, 11-6) completes the regular season in California's capital city as they play Sacramento State (6-24, 3-14).

Tip-off vs the Hornets is set for 8:05 pm and will be broadcast on watchbigsky.com. It will also air on Pluto TV channel 233 or you can listen to 1310 KFKA and follow stats live at uncbears.com.

Opening Tip
This will only be the 22^nd meeting between the two schools as they have only been playing each other since the Bears joined the Big Sky conference. Northern Colorado has won the last three games in the series and lead it overall 15-6.

Locked into Position
With the wins by UNC, Eastern Washington and Idaho, the Bears know they will be the fifth seed in the Big Sky Conference tournament but they do not know their opponent just yet. It will be either the Hornets or the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona. If UNC and NAU win, Northern Colorado will play Sac State twice in a row but if NAU loses then the Bears and Lumberjacks will play Tuesday at approximately 3:35 pm Mountain Time. The game will be the second game of the day.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado fought off multiple comeback attempts by Portland State to capture their first 20-win season since the 2010-11 season. UNC made two crucial defensive plays late to guarantee the 85-78 win over PSU.

Last Time vs Sacramento State
Northern Colorado sent senior forward, Jont'e Dotson out on top with a 70-67 victory over Sacramento State. DJ Miles led the bears with 20 and Roberto Vercellino scored a career-high 13 points against the Hornets.

Record Book Watch
Jordan Davis has moved into sixth all-time for points in his career. JD has scored 1,377 points so far and is only 14 points behind Tevin Svihovec (2010-2015) (1,391) for fifth place. Davis is also sixth in assists with 315 and is only 12 behind Carlos Martinez (1996-00) (313). The Las Vegas native has made 512 field goals in his career which is seventh and one 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 655 points and this is only 32 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 16 points a game to tie Beitzel. Spight is now second for assists in a season with 110 and trails current teammate JD by 52.

The team as a whole is only 12 points away from owning the record for points in a single season. The previous record was held by the 2009-10 squad who took 33 games to reach 2,426 and if this years' Bears beat it…it will take two fewer games to do it. The team will also break four other records for a single season.

Bear Tracks

The Bears have scored more points (1,392) in the conference season than any other team. Their last opponent (PSU-1,376) is 16 points behind them.
Andre Spight is now the leading scorer for the conference season and overall season with his latest 37-point performance. Dre averages 21.8 and that is point five ahead of Weber State's Jerrick Harding.
Shooting 3's is the game of the Bears so with always seeing it in practice, they know how to defend it and it shows in the percentages. UNC only allows their opponents to hit 32.1% of their triples which is first in the conference.
Northern Colorado still continues to be monsters of the defensive glass and not allowing their opponents to get second chances. The Bears have pulled down 835 defensive boards while the next closest team (Weber State) has 802.
Jalen Sanders takes the right shots and at the right time as he is shooting 58.1% on the season. This mark put the freshman third in the conference.

Scouting Sacramento State

In 10 seasons as the head men's basketball coach at Sacramento State, Brian Katz has guided the program to its most success on the Div. I level. That included a 2014-15 season in which the team set numerous school records after finishing 21-12 overall and winning its first postseason game in 53 years. Katz became the 13th men's basketball coach in program history when he was named to the position on April 10, 2008, and he is now the second-longest tenured Hornet hoops coach.
The Hornets are 6-24 overall and 3-14 in the Big Sky for the season. They are currently on a nine-game losing streak with their last win being at Portland State January 27^th.
Sac State averages 66.7 points per game but allows over 73. The scoring margin of -6.9 is second worst in the league.
Justin Strings is the Hornets' leading scorer and scores 17.9 points per game. Strings is sixth in the league in scoring. Sac State has one other player who averages in double figures…Josh Patton puts in 11 points a game and has the highest shooting percentage (60.5) in the conference.
Patton is also tied at the top of the blocked shots list for the Big Sky with 1.8 rejections per game.
Strings took over the Ironman moniker from Jonah Radebaugh recently and has played 16 more minutes this season which is a .5 minute average better than Radebaugh.
As of game time, the Hornets would play Idaho State in the first round of the BSC tourney.

What's Next
The Bears will head to Reno to participate in the Big Sky Conference tourney. Their first game is Tuesday at 3:35 pm Mountain time but their opponent is to be determined by the results of Saturday's Big Sky results.