Jan. 18, 2003

Final Stats

GREELEY, Colo. - The monkey is finally off the back of the University of Northern Colorado men's basketball team, as the Bears were finally able to break through with their first victory in six conference games this season, defeating Minnesota State, Mankato 87-73 on Saturday afternoon at Butler-Hancock Hall.

UNC (9-7, 1-5 NCC) trailed 4-2 early, but after tying it at four and taking the lead, the Bears never looked back in controlling the game from start to finish to end their five-game losing streak. The win also snapped a four-game home court winning streak for the Bears.

Junior point guard Sean Nolen played another big role for UNC, scoring 24 points and dishing out seven assists in the victory. Nolen was only 4-10 from the field and 2-7 from long range (he entered the game hitting 50% from behind the arc) but was an amazing 14-14 from the free-throw line. The seven assists gave him 254 for his career, which moved him into sixth place on the UNC career list. In his last four games, Nolen has scored 108 points (22.0 average).

But Nolen wasn't the only hero, as junior Tim Graham came through with a career-high 16 points on 7-8 field goal shooting. Sophomore center Josh Nigut also added big numbers, putting up his sixth double-double of the season, which is tied for tops in the NCC. Nigut had 18 points and 10 boards.

In all, five UNC players were in double figures, marking the first time UNC had accomplished that since the Grand View game back in November. Junior Heath Orvis added 10 points on 3-4 overall shooting and 2-2 from long range and freshman Erik Olson had 10 points and four rebounds.

The only negative was that UNC did not shoot well behind the arc, hitting only 7-19 (36.8%). The Bears entered the week the number two three-point shooting team in the country behind Michigan Tech.

Minnesota State (11-6, 2-4 NCC) was led by 18 points from Nick Ellenberger and 16 from Jermaine Brown. The Mavericks have not one a NCC road game since Jan. 18, 2002 when they bested North Dakota State by a single point.

UNC has a break before traveling to Omaha to battle the Mavericks next Saturday night. UNC will be looking for revenge for the 32-point loss UNO handed them two weeks ago.

Game Notes: Senior Kevin Knudson had one three-pointer in the game, and is now only one trifecta away from tying the school record for three-pointers in a career ... Knudson started in his 95th game which is ninth all-time at UNC ... UNC won for the first time in the month of January ... the Bears are now 7-1 in games decided by 10 or more points ... UNC is also 7-2 when scoring 80 or more points in a game this season.