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UNC is going to its first Big Dance!
The Northern Colorado Bears held off a late charge by the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks to reach the championship game of the Big Sky Tournament, held in Greeley, Colo. The Bears will face the Montana Grizzlies, who defeated the Weber St. Wildcats in the other semifinal game.
Northern Colorado is looking for its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance, while Montana is trying to get to the dance for the second year in a row.
The Bears are led by Devon Beitzel, who scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the win over NAU. The last time Beitzel was held under 20 points in a game was on Feb. 5, in a win over Portland St.
Besides Beitzel's 21.2 scoring average, Greeley's own Neal Kingman is the only other Bear to average over 10 points per game, registering 10.7 per contest.
The Grizzlies spread their scoring around, with 6'11 center Brian Qvale, Will Cherry and Derek Selvig all pouring in at least 10 points per game.
The game tips tonight at 7:00 p.m. MT and can be seen nationally on ESPN2.
2011 Big Sky Tournament Championship: Northern Colorado Beats Montana, 65-60, For First NCAA Tournament Appearance
The Northern Colorado Bears defeated the Montana Grizzlies, 65-60, to receive the Big Sky's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and their first trip to the event that is March Madness. It was a hard-fought, back-and-forth game that saw plenty of fouls, turnovers and three-point shots.
With 7:41 left in the game, the Grizzlies led 49-45, but that's when the Bears went on a 7-0 run to capture the lead. UNC's Devon Beitzel, the Big Sky Conference Player of the Year, played a huge role in the game, scoring a game-high 27 points. He had several key threes down the stretch, including one made with less than a minute left on the clock. That put the Bears up, 57-50.
The Grizzlies made it as close as 62-60, but Beitzel made two more free throws and Chris Kaba made his first of the night. Northern Colorado struggles for the most of the night at the free throw line and finished at 60 percent (Montana wasn't much better at 63.2).
Montana ran into foul trouble (29 on the night) and lost Will Cherry late in the game. He had scored 13 points and stolen the ball four times.
In SB Nation's latest Bracketology offering, the UNC Bears were projected to be the 15 seed against the 2 seed San Diego St. Aztecs in the West region.
Mar 09 9:37p by Russ Oates