Dejour Reaves and Saint Thomas combined to score 47 points for the Northern Colorado men’s basketball team Saturday afternoon as the Bears beat Sacramento State 80-75 in a Big Sky Conference game in Sacramento, California.
Reaves came off the bench to score 24 points in 27 minutes, and Thomas added 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists to help UNC hold on to second place in the conference standings. The Bears are 9-4 in the Big Sky and 16-10 overall.
Third-place Weber State (9-5) extended its winning streak to a conference-best six games with a 90-84 win over first-place Eastern Washington Saturday afternoon in Cheney, Washington.
Sacramento State (2-12, 6-21) had the advantage in multiple statistical categories to lead 32-27 at halftime including: points off turnovers 11-7, second-chance points 10-2, bench points 20-5 and points in the paint 14-10.
UNC flipped the script in the second half, outscoring the Hornets 53-43 while shooting nearly 81% from the floor (17 of 21), getting 23 points off 11 turnovers, 24 points in the paint and 11-0 on fast-break points.
The Bears pulled away with an 11-0 run late in the half for a 69-61 lead with 2:20 to play.
Brock Wisne and Jaron Rillie both scored 12 points for UNC, which finished the game shooting 58.7% from the floor including 5 of 11 on 3-pointers. The Bears were 21 of 30 from the foul line.
Sacramento State shot 45% from the floor in the first half and almost 71% in the second half. The Hornets were 11-21 on 3s and 4 of 9 from the line.
UNC plays its final games at home Feb. 22 and Feb. 24, hosting Idaho and Eastern Washington, respectively. Both games begin at 6 p.m. at Bank of Colorado Arena.
The Bears play their final Big Sky Conference games on the road, Feb. 29 at Weber State, March 2 at Idaho State and March 4 at Northern Arizona.
