Men’s basketball wins CIT championship

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
Men’s basketball wins CIT championship

By Adam Ide

Bear News Sportswriter

            The University of Northern Colorado men’s basketball team won the CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship game Friday at Bank of Colorado Arena with a 76-71 victory over Illinois Chicago.

            The win marks the first postseason tournament championship in program history, and the Bears are also the first Big Sky team to win a tournament.

The team’s 26 wins are the most in program history.

            Northern Colorado played in front of a record crowd of 3.198

            “Big thank you to the community for coming out and really giving us the home-court advantage the last two games,” head coach Jeff Linder said. “We wouldn’t have done it without them.”

            Senior Andre Spight was named tournament most valuable player after a 23-point performance in the championship game. Spight also had 40 in the semifinal against Sam Houston State.

Dre finishes the season with a Big Sky record 855 points. His 128 three pointers tie a conference record.

            Junior Jordan Davis led Northern Colorado in the championship with 29 points. Freshman Jalen Sanders had 10.

            Marcus Ottey led the Flames with 25 and Tarkus Ferguson had 13.

            It was a slow beginning with UNC leading 5-4 at the first timeout. The Bears went on a 7-0 run after the timeout, but UIC responded with their own big run and took a 13-11 lead.

            Jordan Davis took control of the game, scoring 16 of Northern Colorado’s next 18 points. UNC ended the first half on a 14-2 run, carrying a 35-26 lead into the locker room.

            The Bears kept their lead to around 10 to begin the second half, but the Flames began to comeback with seven minutes left in the game. Illinois-Chicago cut the deficit to 13 and scored 18 over the next five minutes, coming within one of Northern Colorado.

            “It’s basketball,” Spight said of UIC’s comeback. “It’s a game of runs and we know that. Teams scratch and claw.”

            With two minutes remaining, UNC reeled off two electric plays to wake up the fans and bring the trophy home. Davis grabbed an errant pass from Spight and slammed it in for a dunk, giving the Bears a 73-70 lead. Davis then threw a bomb to a wide-open Sanders who dunked it in, sealing the victory. 

            “That’s something we work on,” Linder said of Sanders’ dunk. “We’ve ran that play five or six times this year, and we’ve pretty much scored on every one.”

            Davis spoke about how the team stayed calm at the end.

            “We just fell back on our training,” he said. “We just focus on what we do.”

            Junior Jonah Radebaugh spoke about what winning the championship means for the program.

            “It just goes to show what the program can do,” he said. “We come into the gym and we work every day and it shows when we go out there and play.”

            All of us at Bear News would like to congratulate the Bears on a terrific season.