Greeley, Colo. — An early second-half run by Northern Colorado allowed one of the Big Sky's top teams to post an 87-69 victory over the Fighting Sioux men's basketball team on Monday at the Butler-Hancock Pavillion.
The Bears (16-10, 10-3 Big Sky), who are a half-game behind league-leader Montana, extended what was a five-point lead at the break to double-digits with a 16-2 burst to start the second half. The Sioux (13-13, 5-3 Great West) could not get their deficit back to single digits after that against a former and future conference rival. UND will join the Big Sky in time for the 2012-13 season and the two were old foes in the North Central Conference.
“I thought we really battled and fought hard in this one, but our lack of taking care of the ball early in the second half allowed them to get some separation from us,” UND head coach
Brian Jones said. “It was a good benchmark for us to see where we need to be in two years because this is one of the best teams in the Big Sky. It will be a good a teaching lesson for us in the future.”
Freshman
Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) led the Sioux with 20 points, while classmate
Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) scored all 12 of his points in a second-half flurry in an effort to get UND back in the contest. Webb's efforts went for naught though as they were exceeded by Northern Colorado's Devon Beitzel, who scored 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
Beitzel, who is the Big Sky's leading scorer, hit 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in the contest. He was aided in the scoring department by senior classmate Neal Kingman, who had 20 on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor. Chris Kaba added 12 for the Bears.
Webb, Huff and sophomore
Jordan Allard (Fargo, N.D.) combined for seven 3-pointers in the second half, but every time the Sioux appeared to be chipping away at the lead, the Bears would go down and get a timely basket to keep their lead in double figures.
Junior
Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) added 11 points for the Sioux. Mitchell scored the first eight points of the game for UND as the visitors built an 8-4 advantage, but the Bears would quickly regroup and eventually build a 37-32 lead at the break.
The Bears held a 32-21 rebounding advantage and forced the Sioux into 16 turnovers.
UND will return home for a pair of Great West Conference games starting with a tilt against NJIT on Saturday at 1 p.m. The men's game will follow the women's game between the two teams, which is slated for an 11 a.m. tipoff.
– Go Sioux –
