@UNC_BearsMBB enters the back half of Big Sky play with eyes on the title

Calendar

Oct 18

4 p.m. MT

Men's Basketball

vs Wyoming

Nov 3

7:30 p.m. MT

Men's Basketball

vs Colorado College

Nov 7

6 p.m. MT

Men's Basketball

vs Colorado Christian

Nov 15

TBA

Men's Basketball

at Pepperdine

Nov 21

5:30 p.m. MT | 4:30 PT

Men's Basketball

vs St. Thomas

Nov 22

6 p.m. MT | 5 p.m. PT

Men's Basketball

at Portland

Nov 23

12 p.m. MT | 11 a.m. PT

Men's Basketball

vs California State - Fullerton

Nov 26

TBA

Men's Basketball

at Air Force

Nov 29

6 p.m. MT

Men's Basketball

vs Regis

The second half of Big Sky play has arrived for UNC and the Bears are coming off a stretch of eight days off and entering a three-game in a five-day run. They do so just a tiebreaker away from the top spot in the conference.

Portland State, who NC will see on Thursday, pulled off another shocker beating Weber State, which dropped the Wildcats behind Montana and UNC into third place. We'll get more into the Vikings later this week, but PSU will come to Greeley with four Big Sky wins, two of those have come at the expense of UM and WSU.

BEAR BITES

In what has been one of the more interesting conference schedules in recent memory, UNC played three games in three states over the span of five days, prior to having more than a week off. They return to action this week with three games, luckily for them all at Bank of Colorado Arena.
Aside from the assentation to the top of BSC standings, the story of this season has been Jordan Davis. The senior leads the conference in points per game, 24.1, and remains top 10 in the nation in scoring. He enters the final stretch of his final season as a Bear just 86 points away from the school's all-time scoring record.
In addition to Davis, two factors have played a key role in the Bears winning four of their last five. First, defense. Twice in that span, they have set a new low for points allowed under head coach Jeff Linder. The first occasion was against Idaho State when they allowed just 53 points, they topped that last time out when they allowed NAU to only score 48.
The second factor has been the supporting cast.
Kai Edwards set a new season high in points against NAU.
Sam Masten scored 16 points against Southern Utah the most he has scored vs. a Division I team.
Kur Jockuch has been elevated to the starting lineup and has posted a new career high for rebounds, twice.
Matej Drgon has scored in double figures four times this season, twice in the last three games.

Montana State comes to town fresh off a loss to rival Montana. The Bobcats have fallen into a tie for fifth with their 5-5 conference record.

MSU MINUTES

Tyler Hall leads MSU at 20.7 points per, and since the two teams last met he became the Big Sky's all-time leading scorer.
The Bobcats are the only team in the conference allowing over 80 points a game this season.
They come in middle of the pack in scoring at 77.2 a game.
Bad news for MSU is only Eastern Washington allows teams to shoot better from three-point range and no one in the league shoots the triple more or at a higher percentage than UNC.

This will be the first time this season UNC will have played an opponent for a second time.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP

UNC beat Montana State, 73-70 on Jan. 14 in Bozeman fighting off a Bobcats come back that saw them miss two potential game-tying shots in the final 30 seconds.
The Bears have won the last two meetings in the series.
Linder is 2-2 vs. the Bobcats.
The two have both beaten PSU, ISU, Sacramento State and Idaho.
UNC beat NAU, EWU, and Denver, while those teams got the best of the Bobcats.

UNC men's basketball will be working to help the Bear Pantry on Monday night. Bring one of the items listed below and receive a $7 discounted general admission ticket.

Items needed include:
Ramen
Pasta
Mac and Cheese
Peanut butter
Canned fruit
Cereal
Canned ravioli
Tomato soup
Toiletries

To stay up to date on all things UNC men's basketball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @UNC_BearsMBB.