15-13
Northern Colorado
9-17
Mustangs Fall at Northern Colorado in ESPN BracketBuster, 81-73
2/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME REACTION: JOE CALLERO
GREELEY, Colo. – Sophomore forward Chris Eversley (above) registered a team-leading 18 points and junior guard Dylan Royer hit four three-pointers to finish with 16, but Northern Colorado utilized a dominating run midway through the second half to overtake the Cal Poly men's basketball program and hand the Mustangs an 81-73 defeat on Saturday evening as part of the 2012 ESPN Sears BracketBuster series inside Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.
Senior guard Matt Titchenal chipped in 11 points for Cal Poly (15-12), which forced Northern Colorado (9-17) into 17 turnovers, but also yielded a 61.0 (25-for-41) percent field goal mark to the Bears. Facing the nation's leading three-point shooting team for the second straight season in the BracketBuster series, Cal Poly also allowed the Bears to produce a 50.0 (8-for-16) percent mark from beyond the arc.
Cal Poly, 3-3 all-time in the BracketBuster series, saw senior point guard Amaurys Fermin match a career high with eight assists. Eversley added a team-high seven rebounds for the Mustangs, who return to Big West Conference play with an 8 p.m. ESPNU matchup at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Feb. 25.
Facing Northern Colorado for the first and only time in 21 seasons, Cal Poly trailed the Bears, 19-9, after six minutes after the hosts knocked down their opening three three-point attempts.
Still trailing by seven points midway through the first half, however, the Mustangs converted five Northern Colorado turnovers into a 12-2 run during a five-minute span to grab a 28-25 advantage. The Mustangs then received a pair of three-pointers from Royer and one from Titchenal during three of the ensuing four possessions to vault into a 37-30 advantage.
However, Northern Colorado – which improved its Division I-best three-point mark to 45.4 percent on Saturday – received a three-pointer from sophomore guard Paul Garnica 90 seconds before the break and one from freshman guard Tevin Svihovec on the stroke of the halftime buzzer to take a 38-37 lead into intermission.
Sparked by an early three-pointer from Eversley, the Mustangs opened the second half with an 11-4 run to lead 48-42 with 14 minutes remaining.
Once again, however, Northern Colorado used its top-ranked sharpshooting to reel in and eventually overtake the Mustangs. Svihovec, who finished with 34 points, immediately cut the Mustang lead in half with one of his two three-pointers. With Cal Poly clinging to a 56-54 lead minutes later, Northern Colorado sophomore forward Emmanuel Addo knocked down his only three-pointer of the night. The shot helped build an eventual 16-2 run for the Bears and provide the hosts a 67-58 advantage with seven minutes to go.
Still trailing by nine with three-and-a-half minutes remaining, the Mustangs received Royer's fourth three-pointer of the night and a jumper from Eversley to slice Northern Colorado's lead to 69-65. The four-point gap was as close as Cal Poly would come, however, as the Bears iced the game by hitting eight of their final nine free throw attempts.
