The Men's Basketball team finally returns to the Pavilion for a rematch with Northern Colorado at 7 pm Wednesday evening. The Aggies handed the Bears one their two loses this season when they beat them in Greeley 72-59 back on November 13th. Since then UNC has reeled off 5 straight wins: 84-82 over Pepperdine, 99-60 over Northern New Mexico, 80-67 over Youngstown State, 63-62 over South Dakota and 77-63 over Southern Mississippi.
Their athletic 6'3 Sr G Andre Spight, a transfer from Arizona State, leads the Bears with 18.3 ppg followed by 6'2 Jr G Jordan Davis with 15.1 ppg. Chima Moneke continues to lead the way for the Aggies with 22.8 ppg and 10.8 rpg with Siler Schneider contributing 13.0 ppg and TJ Shorts with 11.0 ppg.
The Ags are coming off a very good losing effort to the Washington Huskies in Seattle. They were within 2 points in the final 2 minutes before falling 77-70.
I hope there will be a good crowd tonight as the Ags try to extend their 11 game home winning streak which is the 14th longest streak in the nation currently.
This may have been the ugliest and most boring half of basketball by two college teams I've ever seen. The Ags blistered the nets with 26% shooting and UNC almost kept pace with 23% shooting. The score was 18-11 Aggies with under 3 minutes to go in the half before the Bears actually managed to make a couple of shots.
I think most of the fans fell asleep about midway through the half.
Well as Jim Les said after the game, "This was a character building game for this team. Good teams find a way to win when they don't play their best." That obviously was the case tonight.
The Ags won despite shooting only 31% but held the Bears to 28% which included 1-23 from 3 for only 4%...amazing. It was UGLY but it's a win and it keeps the home court winning streak alive at 12 straight. Les preaches that good defense can keep you in a position to win when everything else is not going well. Tonight's win demonstrated that in spades.
The Ags looked dead in the water down 11 with 4:27 to go. Siler Schneider and TJ Shorts were clutch down the stretch as the Ags closed the game on a 16-0 run. Chima Moneke was a monster on the boards with 16 and scored 17 points but did not shoot well. He was 4-12 from the floor and only 8-16 from the line. I guess there were quite a few pro scouts in the stands and I'm sure Chima isn't happy with his offense tonight but he'll bounce back.
Just got back from the game. Late arriving crowd, but decent size for a Wed in November. Really got into it late in the game.
Ugly game throughout, but good teams learn how to win these types. Changing to a zone really slowed down UNC's offense, and we finally got some rhythm. Shorts was really big down the stretch.
I guess you could call this a trap game...facing a team you've already beaten in between two Pac-12 games, so it was good to pull out the win.
Double-triple teaming Chima has to allow for some very good outside shooting. We did not do that tonight. We will see a lot more of that as the season goes on. BW teams will take a very long look at this game. lucky win for us
Hearing the player interviews after the game, they are fully bought into the defense-first mentality. Especially since it really worked like magic at the end there.
I couldn't believe it at first, because I had to go to the garage when they were still down 9. By the time I turned the game back on, the game had just ended. I thought I misheard or something!
The game at Davis vs. Northern Colorado was the first one I'd been able to see there in 37 years. I went with an old friend of mine with whom I must have seen about 70 games between 1967 and 1972. What a great way to end such a drought. The Ags defense was unbelievable, although the Bears were able to penetrate late in the second half which meant that Coach Les's adjustment to the zone was prefect. Oynebalu's block right at the end of the game went right back to Jackson making it even more suspenseful. Thank goodness he missed the second shot. I agree with BlueGoldAg that it was an ugly game, but it was still great to watch.