Isaiah Hawthorne and Langston Reynolds have led the Northern Colorado men’s basketball team all season.
They did it again Saturday night in the home finale against Idaho, as the Bears used a big second half for a 92-74 win at Bank of Colorado Arena.
Hawthorne scored 25 points against the Vandals, Reynolds added 21 points on senior night in front of a strong crowd of 2,004.
The men have been UNC’s leading scorers all season, and they were on against Idaho — a team that handed the Bears one of their conference losses earlier in the season.
Hawthorne shot 9 of 11 from the floor with 3 of 4 from 3-point range, Reynolds was 10 of 15 with five rebounds and five assists.
UNC took a 48-47 halftime lead, started the second half with a 17-4 run and outscored the Vandals 44-27 in the second half.
UNC shot 63.2% from the floor for the game. The defense clamped down on Idaho in the second half. The Vandals went from 61% in the first half to 37% after halftime.
“The impact is daily,” Bears coach Steve Smiley said of Hawthorne and Reynolds, who are averaging 17.3 and 16.5 points this year. “When you have really talented guys, sometimes it doesn’t work because they kind of chew into each other’s production, usage and even just ego-wise, right? Those guys play so well together, and that’s a big thing.”
UNC, 13-3 in the Big Sky and 21-8 overall, took a 48-47 halftime lead and extended it to double digits early in the second half with the 17-point run.
UNC clinched at least the second seed for the Big Sky Conference Tournament early next month before the game against the Vandals (7-8, 12-16). Weber State beat Portland State 60-56 Saturday afternoon, assuring the Bears of no worse than second place in the final conference standings.
The Big Sky Conference Tournament is March 8-12 at Idaho Central Arena in Boise, Idaho.
With Portland State’s loss, all conference teams have at least seven conference losses other than UNC and Montana. The Bears and the Grizzlies are guaranteed to slot into either the 1 or 2-seed — the exact position remains up for grabs. As the top two seeds, both UNC and Montana will play their first tournament games on Sunday, March 9.
Those games are scheduled for 5:30 and 8 p.m. Mountain Time.
The Bears could still earn the No. 1 seed for the tournament. UNC needs to win its final two regular-season games and hope for a Montana loss. The Grizzlies (12-2 in the Big Sky as of Saturday afternoon) have four regular-season games remaining. Montana played at Montana State on Saturday night.
UNC holds a tiebreaker over Montana because the Bears swept Idaho State in both games this year and the Bengals beat Montana once.
Saturday night’s game was preceded by senior night festivities. UNC honored guard Jaron Rillie and Hawthorne in a short ceremony. They will be out of eligibility with the end of the regular season.
Rillie is a key component of the team, which has really been defined by its depth. He scored a season high 23 points Thursday night, and led the Bears in rebounding and assists in a 95-76 win over Eastern Washington. Rillie transferred to UNC before the 2023-24 season.
He scored five points, grabbed five rebounds and had four assists against Idaho. .
This is Hawthorne’s only year in the navy and gold. He previously played at the University of San Francisco where he earned a bachelor’s degree.
The Bears scored 90 points for the second straight and for the sixth time this season.
Marcell McCreary hit a couple of 3-pointers late in the second half, and Idaho transfer Quinn Denker made a 3 with 8 minutes remaining for a 20-point UNC lead at 81-61.
Denker came off the bench for 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the floor. McCreary finished with 11 points and three rebounds, also off the bench.
Guard Zach Bloch capped the 17-4 run with a 3 for a 65-51 lead with 14:39 to play.
Bloch started the Bears’ run out of halftime. He passed up a good shot on the wing for a better one for Rille. Rillie waited near the top of the key and rattled in the 3-pointer to go up 51-49 a little more than 1 minute into the second half.
“Even though it was like an NBA game in the first half in scoring, it was still an awesome first half,” Smiley said. “We just had to do a better job guarding 1-on-1. (Tyler) Lindhardt was awesome, and he kept carrying that thing on in the first half.”
Lindhardt led Idaho with 21 points, 18 of those in the first half.
Idaho beat UNC in the teams’ first meeting in late January in Moscow. Freshman Kolton Mitchell hit a 25-foot shot in the final three seconds for the 77-76 win. UNC played the game without Hawthorne, who was out with strep throat.
Smiley’s 85 wins are the most by a coach in the NCAA Division I era at the school. The program went to Division I ahead of the 2005-06 season.
Smiley became the Division I leader with his 81st win Feb. 3 at Idaho State, passing his predecessor and former boss Jeff Linder (80). Smiley became head coach in 2020 when Linder left for Wyoming.