Northern Colorado Holds Off Late Bobcat Rally

Saturday, January 3

2:35 pm

Montana State University

0-23-11/ Big Sky

Northern Colorado

1-16-7/ Big Sky

Team	1	2	F
Northern Colorado	34	28	62
Montana State	23	31	54

Michael Dison led the Bobcats Saturday

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

1/3/2015 6:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Dison's 19 points lead MSU in near-miss

By: Bill Lamberty

Cameron Michael scored 16 points and Northern Colorado hit seven of its eight free throws in the game's final 67 seconds, as the Bears topped Montana State 62-54 in Bozeman on Saturday.

The Bobcats (3-11 overall, 0-2 Big Sky) overcame an 15-point second half deficit to close within two points twice in the game's closing minutes, but UNC answered each Bobcat spurt. A Danny Robison trey at 3:30 capped a 10-2 Bobcat run and pulled the home team within 49-47. But Michael's back-to-back three-pointers stretched the UNC lead to eight.

Michael Dison answered with back-to-back three-pointers, and the second with 1:34 to play pulled the Bobcats within 55-53. Northern Colorado answered from the stripe this time, with two free throws each by Tevin Svihovec and Jordan Wilson sealing UNC's road win inside the last 30 seconds.

"I thought we got a few stops when we needed to," said Bobcat forward Danny Robison, who was plagued by foul trouble in the first half. "I thought we played well defensively for the most part, but hat's off to Northern Colorado. We didn't come out with the same physicality they did."

Northern Colorado's physical play manifested most notably on the boards, where the Bears out-rebounded MSU 36-to-26. "They out-rebounded us by 10, and using the old one-point-per-board (formula), you can see how important that was."

The Bobcats stayed close by forcing 15 Northern Colorado, nearly six more than the Bears' season average, while giving it away just 10 times. The Bobcats had trouble converting those possessions into scoring opportunities, though, as UNC scored 18 points off turnovers while the Cats managed just 15.

The story of the game, however, was shooting. Northern Colorado jumped out to an early lead by using the long ball. UNC scored just four times in its first 12 possessions of the game, but all three were from beyond the arc and gave the Bears a 12-10 lead at the 12 minute mark. After Dominique Lee's second three-pointer of the game, matching his season total entering the contest, UNC led 12-10. The Bears would never trail again.

Dison scored 19 points to lead the Bobcats for the second straight game, and was the only MSU scorer in double-digits. Blake Brumwell led the Cats with seven rebounds, Marcus Colbert dished out five assists, and Eric Norman blocked a couple of shots. Michael, Svihovec (12) and Lee (10) each broke into double-digits for UNC. Tim Huskisson grabbed nine rebounds.