Recap: @UNCO_MBB Crowned CIT Champs

Friday, March 30

.Greeley, Colo.

5 pm

University of Northern Colorado

26-12, 11-7BSC

University of Illinois at Chicago

20-16, 12-6Hor.

UIC

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

3/30/2018 11:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Northern Colorado becomes the only team in Big Sky history to win a postseason tournament

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Greeley, Colo.—UNC was the final team in Colorado to play this season and it was for a title. UNC now has to find a spot to hang a championship banner in Bank of Colorado Arena as they hold on to beat Illinois-Chicago 76-71 in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament to secure their place in history with the title and the most wins in program history.

(3/30/2018) Men's Basketball CIT Championship

How It Happened
The Bears and the Flames both had a little fatigue to deal with at the beginning of the first half as it was just a 5-4 Bears leading at the first timeout. UNC then started hitting their shots and went on a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 9-4. UIC responded with a nine to two scoring streak and they took the lead 13-11.

After the Flames regained the lead, Jordan Davis took the game into his hands and contributed the next 18 points almost by himself as he scored 16 and assisted on one bucket. Northern Colorado was up at that point 29-24 and ended the half on a 14-2 run to take the 35-26 advantage into the half. JD led all scorers with 16.

UNC kept their lead around 10 points until the Flames started coming back with 7:17 to go in the game after a Jonah Radebaugh technical foul as Tarkus Ferguson hit three of his four free throws after the tech. Those cut the Bears' lead to 13 and UIC continued to crawl back into it. Over the next five minutes, Illinois-Chicago scored 18 to UNC's five points to draw as close as one point with just over two minutes to go.

Northern Colorado used two electric plays to get the crowd going again. Spight threw the ball up to JD for the dunk but the pass was off but in typical JD fashion he grabbed and threw it in for the layup, 73-70 UNC. The Bears got the ball back as JD threw a touchdown pass to Jalen Sanders who was wide open down the court and the freshman dunked it home with 46 seconds left. That dunk sealed the deal for the CIT championship. JD led all scorers with 29 points and Dre followed closely behind with 23.

Game Changer
Jordan Davis put the team on his back in the first half as contributed 18-straight points either by bucket or assist. Davis shot 11-18 from the field and 7-8 from the foul stripe.

Key Stat
The Bears free throw shooting is what won them a championship as they hit 19-25 from the foul line. The 76% is eight percent above their season average…Dre and JD went a combined 13 for 15 from the charity stripe.

What They Said
Head Coach Jeff Linder
Opening Statement
"First, big thank you to the community for coming out and really giving us the home court advantage the last two games. We wouldn't have done it without them, without the support of our administration who went out into the community and made it possible for us to play, to not have to travel to Liberty or Chicago, to be able to have my players eligible next year because they've missed a lot of classes. For them to step up, it shows their commitment. It also shows the support that we get, it allows our players to be able to do what they do.  There's a reason why I had Jon'te Dotson cut down part of the net even though he didn't play this year. He laid that foundation for us last year. He was the only senior. He was a walk-on for four years. He was the mentality of our team. He laid the foundation. He's as much a part of it as anybody else. It goes to the managers – I have a bunch of them that are there every single day. Support staff, you can't be really good unless you've got a great strength coach and a great trainer. I'm very fortunate to have two of the best, and then my assistant coaching staff. The biggest thing I did when I got the job was to hire the right coaching staff. The most important thing. The synergy amongst us, how well we get along on the court, off the court. When they know the coaching staff is connected, the coaching staff is together, it just makes life a lot easier for them and understanding how we want them to play and how we want them to conduct themselves as people. Championships with character. That's where those players in the locker room could have used a lot of excuses.  Those guys in the locker room, Anthony Johnson, Tanner Morgan, who were here when I got the job, they could have gone to different pastures to go play, but they stuck it out here. That was a big reason why I had a conversation with Anthony tonight. "Could you handle not starting if it meant you could win a championship?" He looked at me like it was a riddle. For him to make the sacrifices he's made, for him to be a guy that's been here the last five years, it was only right for me to give him the opportunity to start his last game at Bank of Colorado Arena.  I'm proud of him. For a lot of 22, 23-year-olds in this day and age, to have the character and substance not to maybe have things go exactly how you want them to go, but even though it wasn't an NCAA tournament berth, you earned a lot of firsts. The all-time winningest team in school history. First Big Sky Team to ever win a post-season tournament. To be the first team in Colorado to win a Division I tournament post-season since 1940 or something. To be a team of a lot of firsts. I can't thank Anthony enough, Tanner enough. To have the taste in his mouth after the Montana game, but for him to be able to hold the trophy up out there, I think that erases a lot of those memories. You've got a guy like Andre Spight, who's a special, special talent. Unfortunately, you only get to see him play for one year. But, you're talking about a guy that has the all-time single season points leader in Big Sky history in one season. He's a unique, special player. He makes me look like a really good coach. It just goes down the line. I could talk about each guy. Jordan Davis, the commitment he shows every day to be a great player. That's the reason why he can score 29, get 8 in a game like that. People don't see behind the scenes the work he puts in at 6 am, 11 pm to be that player. It just goes down the line. I could name off every single guy. Sometimes males don't want to talk about it, but we talk about love. That's what this team, they love each other, they know that. In a game like that, the togetherness and the love allows you to win those games and championships."

On the long pass to Jalen at the end of the game
"Yeah, I mean, that's something we work on. Once or twice in a quick turnaround. We've ran that play five or six times this year, and we've pretty much scored on every one. So we call it touchdown. Our guys know JD was a quarterback in high school. He's really good at reading that play. Puts some  different guys in different spots. I knew if we could get the ball to Jalen, he was going to be able to go and finish it. That kind of took the wind out of their sales. Our guys did a great job executing.  You've gotta be ready for those late-game plays.  We've worked on end-of-game, trying to get the ball across the court to the best free throw shooter to finish the game."

On how UIC got back into it
"They went to the 1-3-1 zone. They're a very good defensive team. If you go look at their numbers, they're one of the better defensive teams in the country. They've got a lot of length and athleticism. We don't see that in the Big Sky, the type of length that they have. We were up 16, and we always talk to our guys about response. "What's your response going to be? How are you going to respond when they cut that lead down?" As opposed to our guys panicking. They've been in that situation before and they responded in the right way. But, you also, in order to win championships, you've got to be able to guard, and for us, that's why we won that game. It wasn't one of our prettier games offensively. But, when you go 3 of 24 from the three like we did, after we went 17 for 30 the other night, the defensive allowed us to win games. WE turned it over, held them to 36%, and out-rebounded them by four."

Redshirt Senior Andre Spight
On how UIC got back into it
"It's basketball. It's a game of runs and we know that. Teams scratch and claw. If we were down in the same situation, we would come back too. We know it's basketball at the end of the day. There's going to be runs back and forth. We just have to withstand that and come out on top at the end. That's what matters most."

Junior Guard Jordan Davis
On how they kept calm at the end of the game
"We just fell back on our training. Like we say all the time, we just focus on what we do. It's a game of runs. They've got good players over there and a lot of athleticism. They're going to make tough shots, and we're going to play good defense. It happens, we've been on both sides of it. At the end of the day, it's just doing what you do best and come out with a W at the end."

On the big crowd
" I remember after I cut down the net, walking here, I talked to Devon Beitzel and Neal Kingman. They were like "That's how it feels when Butler is filled." I talked to both of them because they know. They went through that experience.  They still have that championship in their mind. I just asked Neal.  To be able to cut down the net, confetti, everybody rushing the court. It's a big party. I'm just on cloud nine right now."

On being the last team in Colorado playing
"We didn't play how we wanted to against CU and CSU, but just to be able to have something over them this year, I'm going to say that, I'm going to be cocky about it, to be able to have something over them is a total blessing. I'm just happy we could send our seniors out on something and build on something for next year."

Redshirt Sophomore Jonah Radebaugh
On what winning this means
"I mean, it just goes to show what the program can do. The probation, all that stuff, that's not going to stop us.  We come into the gym and we work every day and it shows when we go out there and play. It shows a lot about us, we're not letting that stop us."

On How they are going to celebrate
JD: "Definitely Fortnite"
Dre: "Talk to family back home."
Jonah: I'm not answering that question.  They covered it, for sure."

Notable Stats

Sanders and Kai Edwards shot a perfect seven for seven from the field off the bench as the two combined for 14 of the 16 UNC bench points.
The Bears were smart and stayed away from UIC's shot blocker Tai Odiase as he came in averaging six blocks a game but only got three.
UNC held the Flames to 23% shooting from three when they normally average 35% from beyond the arc. The Bears tightened the 3 defense in the second half only allowing the Flames to hit two of 11.

Record Holder
Andre Spight now sits alone atop the Big Sky Conference record book as his 23 points put him number one for single-season points. Dre finished with 855 points in his senior season which passed Dave Wagnon (845) and Spight tied Tyler Harvey for 3-pointers made in a season with 128.