Montana State Dominates Northern Colorado in 77-56 Win

Thursday, January 5

Greeley, CO

6 p.m.

Montana State University

9-7,2-1Big Sky

Northern Colorado

5-10,0-3Big Sky

Montana St.

Northern Colo.

Great Osobor

Photo by: Jam David/Northern Colorado Athletics

1/5/2023 9:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Strong interior scoring from Great Osobor, Jubrile Belo and Sam Lecholat helped the Bobcats in the wire-to-wire victory.

GREELEY, Colo. – Unlike last year's regular-season meetings between the Montana State men's basketball team and the Northern Colorado Bears, no late heroics were needed on either side to pull out the victory.

Instead, the Bobcats (9-7, 2-1 Big Sky) led wire-to-wire over the Bears (5-10, 0-3 Big Sky) to cruise to a 77-56 road win in a rematch of last year's Big Sky Conference Championship game on Thursday night.

Montana State outplayed Northern Colorado in nearly every facet of the game. The Bobcats out-shot the Bears by connecting on 56.9% of their field goals to UNC's 38.3%, plus MSU connected on 28.6% of its threes compared to UNC's 23.5%.

Defensively, however, the Bobcats shone.

The Bobcats didn't allow a made UNC three until the second half; the Bears went 4-for-17 (23.5%) from beyond the arc. And for the second time in league play, the Bobcats put the clamps down on another one of the Big Sky's top scorers. Averaging 25.5 points per game going into Thursday night, the league's leading scorer Dalton Knecht finished with 8 points on 4-for-11 shooting while failing to make a three.

"I thought our defensive performance was tremendous," Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle told Bobcat Sports Radio Network. "Our guys were connected. Their defensive intent and engagement — especially after last Saturday — was on another level. For not having Patrick McMahon and Caleb Fuller, our guys took some ownership and played for them today."

Individually, Jubrile Belo led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds, plus Great Osobor added 15 points, five rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Making his return to the starting lineup, Sam Lecholat grabbed a career-high nine rebounds to go along with seven points.

"When Northern Colorado goes small, they're really hard to guard," Sprinkle — who picked up his 65th win as a head coach and moved up to a tie for the 10th-most wins in Montana State men's basketball history — said. "When they went small, we had to go big because that worked to our advantage. We had to limit them from three, which is easier said than done, but our guys did a great job of it tonight."

Leading from wire-to-wire and only tying twice in the first half, Montana State blew the game open with a 10-0 run in 4:13 to lead 19-8 with 10:21 to play. RaeQuan Battle chipped in seven points and Belo added six points in the opening 10 minutes as the Bobcats maintained its double-digit lead. An and-one from Sam Lecholat helped give MSU a 13-point lead with 5:45 in the half — its largest of the night at that point — then the Bobcats rattled off a 6-0 run that gave them a 33-15 advantage. Northern Colorado wrapped up the half with only one made field goal in the final four minutes while the Bobcats held them to 0-for-8 from three in the first half.

Trailing 39-20 after intermission, the Bears pulled within 16 points twice in the first three minutes of the second half, yet the hosts couldn't get closer than that. Great Osobor sparked a 10-2 run that put MSU out of reach for good, then Tyler Patterson hit a three with 9:40 remaining to give MSU a 26-point advantage. On MSU's next possession, Darius Brown II (10 points, 7 assists) found Osobor in the pick-and-roll, then the sophomore threw down a tomahawk dunk through heavy contact that effectively put the exclamation mark on the win.

The Bobcats would lead by 28 points once more off Belo's final field goal of the night, which made the score 67-39 with 6:38 left. MSU's lead only dwindled under 20 minutes twice with under two minutes to go, yet Miller found Ford III for a three in front of the Bobcat bench with 1:44 to go that put the Bobcats back up by 21.

With the game fully in hand, Jed Miller, Alex Germer and Luca Colceag helped close out the half, marking their first appearances in Big Sky play. Miller would finish with three points and one assist, while Colceag grabbed two rebounds.

Langston Reynolds led the Bears with 12 points while Brock Wisne added 10 points. Riley Abercrombie was one of three Bears to make a three; he finished with six points and five rebounds.

Up next, Montana State travels to Northern Arizona on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 2 p.m. MT. The Lumberjacks were looking for their first Big Sky win, yet they knocked off Montana 75-74 in overtime on Thursday night. All Big Sky Conference games will be streamed on ESPN+.