Preview: No Rest for the Victors as @UNCO_MBB Prepares for BSC Semifinals

Friday, March 9

.Reno, Nev.

6:35 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Montana

Photo by: Brooks Nuanez

3/8/2018 10:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

UNC Game Notes vs UM

Bears looking for a second-straight revenge win as they take on Montana in the Big Sky semis

By: Kurt Maddox, UNCBears.com

Reno, Nev.—The Northern Colorado men came into the Big Sky tournament needing four wins in five nights and it is not going to be easy playing two teams back to back they did not beat all year. UNC handed one of those two teams (Weber State) a drubbing 80-55 and gave head coach Jeff Linder his first win over one of his former bosses. Now, the Bears have to quickly turn around and get ready for the top-seeded Montana Grizzlies who handed UNC two nine-point defeats in the regular season. UM won the Big Sky regular-season title and defeated North Dakota 84-76 to advance to the semifinals.

The game is set to start at 6:35 pm Mountain Time and will be seen on Eleven Sports, Pluto TV channel 231 or watchbigsky.com. 1310 KFKA will have the radio broadcast and stats will be live on uncbears.com.

Cables Bar and Grill will have another watch party for the game where you can watch the Bears with fellow UNC fans and enjoy some great food and drinks. Cables will also have a watch party for the women's game which starts at 1:05 pm Mountain Time.

Opening Tip
Montana and Northern Colorado first met in 1970 when the Grizzlies handed the Bears a 72-63 loss in Missoula. UM is ahead in the all-time series 22-9 and won the two teams' last matchup 88-79 in Greeley.

Last Time Out
Weber State had won the past six games against UNC including sweeping this season's regular season games. UNC defeated Weber State 80-55 in convincing fashion to advance to the Big Sky Semifinals and end the Wildcats six-game win streak over them.

Last Time vs Montana
UNC relied on their heavy hitters but it was not enough as Montana used a balanced approach in the 88-79 victory. Despite a valiant effort by Andre Spight who scored 32, The Bears were unable to pull off the win over the best team in the Big Sky.

Bear Tracks

Jonah Radebaugh is only the third Bear ever to record over 200 rebounds for a single season. This feat has happened four times now by three players. Radebaugh has 206 rebounds this season. Jalen Sanders needs 10 more to join this club and Tanner Morgan needs nine.
With his three 3-pointers vs Weber State, Andre Spight is the first-ever UNC player to hit over 100 triples in a single season. The record was held by Tate Unruh (2009-14) who buried 92 in the 2012-13 season. Spight currently sits 10th all-time in the conference for 3s made in a season and is one behind Scott Bamforth of Weber State and Shannon Taylor of Eastern Washington who are tied for ninth with 103.
Spight also tied JD and Unruh for seventh for most steals in a season with 39.
Dre has scored 723 points on the season, to put him ninth all-time in Big Sky history. He is three points behind Rodney Stuckey of Eastern Washington who scored 726 in the 2006-07 season.

Scouting Montana
Now completing his fourth season at his alma mater, Travis DeCuire (80-48 overall) earned his first Big Sky Coach of the Year award this season after guiding the Grizzlies to the top seed in this year's tournament. In his first two seasons as the University of Montana's 27th men's head basketball coach, DeCuire accomplished something no other coach in UM history had: he posted three 20-win seasons.

Montana has won seven of its last nine games with its only losses coming to No. 2 seed Idaho and No. 3 seed Eastern Washington in back-to-back games. Those two defeats were the Grizzlies only ones in the conference.

Ahmaad Rorie was named to the All-Big Sky first team this season and that is a step up from his second team nomination last season. Rorie is the Grizzlies leading scorer by averaging 16.9 points per game. He was right at that average in the last game vs UNC as he scored 17.
Rorie (16.9 ppg), Michael Oguine (15.3 ppg) and Jamar Akoh (13.6 ppg) are the three players averaging double digits for UM and Oguine captured the Defensive Player of the Year title this season as he narrowly edged out Radebaugh. It was Fabijan Krslovic who came up big with 21 points vs UNC in Greeley February 10.
Montana is 19th in the nation for steals per game with eight thefts per contest. Bo Moorehead and Oguine have combined for 82 steals on the season.
Rorie is 53rd in the country for free-throw percentage by hitting 85.9 percent of his foul shots.

What's Ahead
If the Bears pick up the win vs Montana, they will play in the Big Sky championship Saturday against either No. 10 Southern Utah who upset No. 2 Idaho 92-78 or No. 3 Eastern Washington. The championship game will be broadcast on ESPNU at 6:05 pm Mountain Time Saturday.