GREELEY — Will Figures and Devon Beitzel scored 24 points each Monday night, leading Northern Colorado to a 93-69 victory over San Jose State.
“We recruit shooters so people can’t zone us,” Northern Colorado coach Tad Boyle said of Figures and Beitzel. “We got it going, and when we watched a couple go in, it’s contagious.”
Neal Kingman added 11 points for Northern Colorado (10-3). The Bears are off to their best start since opening 10-2 in the 1988-89 season.
UNC hit a school-record 18 3-pointers on 37 attempts beyond the arc. That was the Bears’ weapon to counter the San Jose State zone.
“We take it as a team can’t guard us when a team zones us,” Figures said. “We just want to attack, make the right plays and shoot them out of it, and that’s what we did.”
Adrian Oliver led San Jose State (5-5) with 26 points. C.J. Webster contributed 16 for the Spartans, who were denied their first three-game winning streak of the season.
“I tried to keep it going and tried to provide a spark,” Oliver said of his 8-for-16 shooting. “But they had a guy face guarding me the whole time, so I knew it would be tougher than normal.”
Oliver was coming off a 31-point game.
The Spartans fell behind 46-35 at the start of the of the second half, managing only two free throws by Oliver while Beitzel and Yahosh Bonnor were hitting a 3-pointer each. Connor Osborne’s layup and free throw put UNC up 53-38 with 14:52 left to play.
UNC’s lead was 68-58 after Oliver’s basket and layup, but Figures’ 3-pointer put it back at 15 (73-58) and Bonnor’s 3-pointer made it 81-61.
San Jose State never got closer than 17 points during the game’s final 5:40.
FG FT Reb
S.J. STATE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Thomas 21 0-4 2-2 2-3 2 2 2
Jones 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Webster 25 5-9 6-7 2-4 0 4 16
Oliver 35 8-16 9-9 1-4 0 2 26
Graham 37 3-5 5-6 0-4 1 2 11
Moor 3 1-2 1-1 0-1 0 0 3
Owens 20 1-4 0-0 0-2 0 2 2
Henson 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 0
Peterson 33 2-4 0-0 1-2 1 0 6
Dixon 8 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 0 0
Wilson 8 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Totals 200 21-48 23-25 7-25 4 16 69
Percentages: FG .438, FT .920. 3-point goals: 4-10, .400 (Peterson 2-3, Wilson 1-1, Oliver 1-2, Graham 0-1, Owens 0-3). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 0. Turnovers: 12 (Graham 4, Oliver 4, Webster 2, Dixon, Wilson). Steals: 4 (Webster, Moor, Owens, Oliver). FG FT Reb
UNC Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Proctor 16 1-6 0-0 2-4 0 1 2
Montgomery 11 1-1 3-4 0-0 0 5 5
Figures 35 9-15 0-0 0-2 4 1 24
Bonner 29 3-9 0-0 1-5 4 4 9
Beitzel 32 8-10 2-4 1-3 5 0 24
Hall 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Kaba 15 2-3 0-0 0-3 2 3 4
Lloyd 15 1-5 0-0 0-1 0 2 3
Brereton 4 2-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 6
Arnold 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Kingman 23 4-7 3-3 2-6 3 2 11
Osborne 12 2-4 1-1 3-5 1 1 5
Totals 200 33-62 9-12 10-31 20 19 93
Percentages: FG .532, FT .750. 3-point goals: 18-37, .486 (Beitzel 6-8, Figures 6-11, Bonner 3-9, Brereton 2-2, Lloyd 1-4, Kaba 0-1, Kingman 0-2). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 1 (Kingman). Turnovers: 9 (Figures 3, Beitzel, Osborne, Bonner, Arnold, Kingman, Lloyd). Steals: 8 (Beitzel 2, Proctor 2, Figures 2, Bonner, Kingman).San Jose State 33 36 — 69
Northern Colorado 38 55 — 93
A — 2,698. Officials —Byrne Haskins, Jeff Wooten, Jason Schaefer.
