GREELEY, Colo. – Idaho men's basketball couldn't survive a cold second-half shooting effort, as Northern Colorado earned a 76-62 win on Thursday night at the Bank of Colorado Arena.
Quinn Denker led the Vandal scoring attack, posting a new Idaho career-high with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 3 for 8 from three. The junior guard also added a team-high seven rebounds and four assists.
Terren Frank and
EJ Neal also scored in double figures to round out Idaho's scoring leaders. Frank posted 11 points while Neal added 10 points and five rebounds.
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Julius Mims alley-oop from Denker started off the scoring for Idaho in the first half. The next five minutes of action saw Idaho and Northern Colorado trade baskets. After a three from Neal to bring the Vandals within two (12-14), a three-minute drought without a field goal proceeded for both teams.
Idaho's offense got going again later in the period, scoring on five straight possessions to give the Vandals a one-point edge (24-23) at the 6:15 mark. Denker scored six of his 13 first-half points during the stretch while
Kristian Gonzalez and Mims added a bucket each part of a 10-5 run.
UNC took back the lead and went up by as many as six points before heading into the halftime with a 37-32 advantage.
Neal helped the Vandals get off to a strong second-half start, scoring five of Idaho's first seven points to make it 42-39, Northern Colorado. From there, UNC pulled out to a nine-point lead before Denker knocked down a triple to pull it to a two-possession game with 12:43 remaining. The Bears caught fire and used a key 13-0 run over the next four minutes to put the game out of reach.
Northern Colorado turned the Vandals 11 turnovers into 12 points, including 10 in the opening 20 minutes.
Idaho shot 22-of-57 (38.6%) from the field, 8-of-28 (28.6%) from three and 10-15 (66%) from the free throw line.
Up Next
Idaho closes out its two-game road trip in Flagstaff with a matchup against Northern Arizona on Saturday at 1 p.m. PST.
POSTGAME WITH ALEX PRIBBLE
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