GAME 29: SOUTHERN UTAH
PREGAME PRIMER SOUTHERN UTAH n NORTHERN COLORADO THE LAST TIME THEY MET
‘LATE RUN PUSHES T-BIRDS PAST BEARS IN CEDAR CITY’ CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Northern Colorado men’s basketball program dropped a heartbreaker on the road Saturday night, as the Bears fell 51-50 to Southern Utah inside Centrum Arena. The Bears (3-7, 1-1 Big Sky) found themselves up 50-44 with 3:16 remaining in the game but went the final three minutes and change without scoring as the Thunderbirds (4-7, 2-0 Big Sky) ended on a 7-0 run to steal the win. As with any one-point game, the final result came down to the last second, as the Bears had one last gasp to come away with a victory, but redshirt sophomore Tevin Svihovec could not convert a shot in traffic with under 10 seconds remaining. Southern Utah’s Jordan Johnson came away with the defensive rebound and the Thunderbirds ran the rest of the clock down to finish off the game. With the loss, the Bears’ two-game winning streak was snapped as they suffered their first loss in Big Sky play after opening conference competition with a road win against North Dakota last week. Svihovec (Kingwood, Texas) put the Bears up 50-44 after putting in a layup while getting fouled. From there though, turnovers and missed layups plagued the Bears as they couldn’t find a way to close out the fast-charging Thunderbirds. Svihovec missed the ensuing free throw and also missed another at the 2:43 mark of the second half. The redshirt sophomore guard also turned the ball over three times in the game’s final three minutes. The game’s key play came with 14 seconds remaining, when Southern Utah’s AJ Hess stole the ball from Svihovec. Hess’s steal led to what turned out to be the game-winning points as Wade Collie’s layup put the Thunderbirds on top 51-50. Northern Colorado played well enough to win this game, particularly on the defensive end, where the Bears’ defense held Southern Utah to just 34 percent shooting from the field and 12.5 percent shooting from behind the three-point line. The swarming Northern Colorado defense also forced Southern Utah into 14 turnovers.
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F JACKSON STEVENETT
T-BIRDS
F TIM HUSKISSON
STATS (AS OF MARCH 1)
BEARS
67.4 Points per game 70.7 71.9 Opponent points per game 71.2 37.7 Rebounds per game 34.0 3.8 Rebounding margin 1.4 41.4 FG percentage 46.2 43.0 Opponent FG percentage 45.4 32.8 3-point pct. 38.4 35.4 Opponent 3-point pct. 34.3 73.2 FT pct. 66.3 12.3 Assists per game 13.1 16.0 Turnovers per game 13.4 5.1 Blocks per game 2.2 4.8 Steals per game 6.7