Hot Shooting Hornets hand Bears a 72-64 loss

Thursday, January 12

Sacramento, Calif.

8 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

5-12,0-5Big Sky

Sacramento State

10-7,3-1Big Sky

Northern Colo.

Sacramento St.

1/12/2023 9:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The University of Northern Colorado men's basketball team dropped a 72-64 decision to Sacramento State on Thursday night. The Hornets shot 53% (28-for-53) for the night compared to just 41% (26-for-64) by the Bears.

UNC has now lost seven in a row and sits at 0-5 in Big Sky competition. However, the Bears have been resilient in competing to the end, as five of those seven games have ended with less than a 10-point margin. Northern Colorado faced a 16-point deficit with less than four minutes to play in the second half, and fought back to cut Sac State's lead to just five with under a minute to play.

The Hornets finished off the game, hitting three-for-four free throws to earn the eight-point victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

Freshman Brock Wisne put up a career-high 12 points, shotting 5-for-11 including hitting one three pointer.
Dalton Knecht posted his ninth game in which he led the Bears in scoring, netting 16 points.
Matt Johnson II hit four three-pointers in the contest, scoring a total of 12 points.

ACCORDING TO COACH SMILEY
"I thought there were a lot of positives, and right now with some shaky belief, I think it's really important to highlight and focus those for this team as we move forward. For example, I thought generating 10 steals was something we can use moving forward. Our defense was active and made some big winning plays.

We're in uncharted territory in terms of our offensive struggles right now, and we're searching to find our way out of it. I thought we got great looks and made some, but missed too many of those to give ourselves a chance to win on the road.

Additionally, going 2-for-8 from the free-throw line in the first half was a big deal in not holding the lead at halftime. Those types of things add up on the road trying to beat a really good opponent. I do think Sac State is right near the top of our league, and they will be a tough outing every night."

UP NEXT
Northern Colorado heads to Portland State on Saturday, Jan. 14 for another 8 p.m. (MT) game.