TUCSON — Northern Colorado’s climb from the bottom of college basketball to the NCAA Tournament ended here Thursday afternoon as seventh-ranked San Diego State pulled away for a 68-50 win.
The odds were against UNC which had the worst RPI in the country four years ago when it officially became a Division I member. No. 15 seeds were 4-100 against No. 2 seeds and while the Bears (21-11) made it close for 25 minutes, the lack of firepower and size foiled them.
Devon Beitzel, the Big Sky player of the year, scored 26 points, but the next highest contributor was Chris Kaba with 10. Neal Kingman, UNC’s No. 2 scorer this season, was held scoreless.
First-team all-Mountain West Kawhi Leonard led the Aztecs with 21.
San Diego State (33-2) didn’t use the same defense on Beitzel as it did in slowing down BYU’s Jimmer Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer, in the Mountain West Tournament championship. The Aztecs kept 6-2 sophomore Chase Tapley on him and had big men jump out in front of screens.
It didn’t work. He scored UNC’s first 11 points of the second half. Three came on 3-pointers, the last off a rare fast break, that cut the lead to 38-35.
However, UNC’s plan to sag back and hope San Diego State suffers one of its off shooting nights backfired. The Aztecs hit 10 3-pointers, with reserve James Rahon canning three in a row during a 13-0 run for a 51-35 lead, forcing a UNC timeout with 7:54 left.
In the first half, the Bears carried out coach B.J. Hall’s game plan well enough to trail only 30-24 at halftime. UNC dominated the defensive boards and stayed patient on offense.
Despite a major size disadvantage, UNC had 16 defensive rebounds and held the Aztecs to only three offensively.
The Bears, the highest-scoring team in the Big Sky, hit four 3-pointers and Beitzel’s bomb off a break gave them a 20-20 tie with 5:35 left.
The Aztecs hit 5-of-14 3-pointers with Billy White and Chase Tapley hitting treys to highlight a 10-0 run for a 30-20 lead.
While UNC stayed close from outside, its lack of size helped SDSU bottle it up inside. The Bears’ array of drives, sometimes early in the shot clock, often didn’t come close.
Kingman had a nightmare half. He went 0 for 3, including an airball 3-pointer, committed a charge and passed out of bounds. He sat the last seven minutes of the half.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
