Montana State vs. Northern Colorado

 
Coaches: Northern Colorado’s B.J. Hill is in his third season with the Bears. He has an overall record of 42-46. Hill led Northern Colorado to its first Big Sky Championship and first trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament in 2011, his first season as head coach. Hill served as an assistant at Northern Colorado for four seasons before taking over the program. Hill is 2-0 in Big Sky Tournament games...Montana State’s Brad Huse is 93-116 in his seventh season with the Bobcats. Prior to coaching at MSU, Huse amassed a 184-60 record in as Jamestown College in North Dakota. Huse has led the Bobcats to the Big Sky Championship in all seven of his season. He is 2-6 in tournament games.
 
What’s Next: The winner will play in a Friday semifinal. Unless No. 6 Southern Utah or No. 7 Northern Arizona pull off an upset, the winner will play No. 1 seed Montana.
 
Season Series: The teams split the regular-season series. Montana State won 69-66 in Greeley on Jan. 10. Calen Coleman led MSU with 16 points off the bench. Xavier Blount netted 14 points. Tate Unruh scored 23 points for Northern Colorado, while Derrick Barden had 14 points and 11 rebounds...Northern Colorado won 85-72 on Feb. 9 in Bozeman. Tevin Svihovec scored 23 points. Barden had 11 points and 11 rebounds. All five NC starters scored in double figures. Antonio Biglow scored 15 points to lead Montana State.
 
Meetings in Championship: This is the first meeting between the programs in the Big Sky Championship. Northern Colorado joined the Big Sky Conference in 2006
 
Notes: Northern Colorado started the conference campaign 1-5, but won nine of its last 14 to tie Montana State for fourth place...Montana State won three of its last four to finish 10-10 and garner the No. 4 seed...MSU will be without forward Xavier Blount, who suffered a foot injury...Northern Colorado’s Tate Unruh has made 87 3-pointers this season. The 87 3-pointers is tied for the most by a Bear player since the team joined the league. Devon Beitzel made 87 3-pointers in his MVP season of 2010-11. Unruh made at least on 3-pointer in the first 19 games of the season...MSU’s Flavien Davis has 52 points in his last three games...Hill is 4-2 against Huse...NC’s Derrick Barden leads the conference with 10 double-doubles...He enters the tournament averaging 13.6 points and a league-high 9.1 rebounds per game...In conference play, Northern Colorado knocked down .401 percent of its 3-pointers...Since making the 2009 championship, Montana State has lost three straight tournament games...Neither Montana State nor Northern Colorado has played a neutral court game this season...NC’s Derrick Barden averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds in league play. He’s the first player to average a double-double in conference play since Weber State’s Lance Allred in 2004-05.