Bears blowout Wildcats, set new program record for Big Sky wins

Thursday, February 28

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

19-9, 13-4BSC

Weber State

16-12, 10-7BSC

Weber State

Northern Colorado

Trent Harris scored 16 points off the bench for the Bears.

2/28/2019 10:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Ryan Ronan

There was going to be no let down for the Bears Thursday night. UNC had yet to beat Weber State in the regular season under head coach Jeff Linder and they came out ready to change that. The Wildcats took the lead 11-9 with 14:00 to play in the opening half. Eight minutes later they found themselves down double digits and would only get the lead back under 10 once more for the entire game. Jordan Davis posted his fifth 30-point game of the season and UNC dominated Weber State on the way to an 85-61 win.

The victory earned the Bears a first-round bye in the Big Sky Tournament and set a new recognized program record for single-season conference wins since joining Division I with 13.

Things got away from Weber State quickly. After trailing by two, UNC went on a 10-0 run sparked by Trent Harris. The junior college transfer came off the bench and in the span of a minute scored eight points that pushed the Bears lead to 19-11. With just over four minutes left in the half, WSU cut the lead back to eight. In five minutes worth of game time, UNC pushed the lead to 16 and it never got any smaller than that. The Bears twice pushed the lead to 28 late in the second half.

UNC has beaten WSU twice under Linder by a combined margin of 49 points.

BY THE NUMBERS
-    Davis only needed 16 points to move into second place on the Big Sky's all-time scoring list.
-    He has now scored 2,188 points in his UNC career.
-    JD is now the 160th all-time scorer in DI basketball history.
-    While Davis scored the ball with ease on Thursday, Jerrick Harding found it a tough go against the Bears, again, he scored just 15 points.
-    He came into the game as the second leading scorer in the conference at 22 points a game. But thanks to the work of Jonah Radebaugh and the Bears defense he scored just 30 points against UNC in two      games this season.

BREAKING OUT OF THE BOX SCORE
-    Harris finished with 16 points.
-    Bodie Hume reached double figures at 10.
-    Besides holding down Harding, Radebaugh grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

CHASING A CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
It was a light night of Big Sky action, the win kept UNC's regular season title hopes alive, they remain one game behind Montana. The loss sent Weber State's conference tournament seed into a tailspin, they are now tied with Montana State for third place, but just a game ahead of Southern Utah and Eastern Washington.

SCHEDULE SAYS
UNC will close out this two-game homestand Saturday against Idaho State. The Bengals have been off for a week and will come to Greeley with a 9-16 record. Tickets for that game are available at tickets.UNCO.edu or by calling the UNC Box Office at 970-351-4849 Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.