Kolton Mitchell hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the Idaho men’s basketball team to upset Northern Colorado 77-76 in a Big Sky Conference game Thursday night in Moscow, Idaho.
UNC’s loss snapped the conference-leading Bears’ 8-game winning streak dating to mid-December, and ended a 6-game winning streak to start the Big Sky Conference season.
Idaho (4-3 Big Sky, 9-11 overall) trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half before Mitchell stuck his game-winning shot with two seconds on the clock.
UNC guard Jaron Rillie gave the Bears a 76-74 lead on layup with three seconds to play. UNC led 50-37 on a layup by Marcell McCreary with 13-minutes, 37 seconds left in the second half.
UNC (6-1 Big Sky, 14-6 overall) led for 35:27 of the 40-minute game. The Bears were up 10 points at halftime, 36-26. Idaho outscored UNC 51-40 in the second half, making 21 of 23 from the free throw line (91.3%) and 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
“We had a good lead,” UNC coach Steve Smiley said in a text message Thursday night. “Made some critical mistakes to get them back in the game. Last 5 min. was very even, players on both teams made big plays.”
Mitchell scored a game-high 25 points on 6 of 12 shooting from the field including 5 of 9 from 3-point range for his third highest point total of the season. A redshirt freshman and transfer from Idaho State, Mitchell scored 32 and 26 points in back-to-back games at University of California Davis and Pacific in late December.
Guard Langston Reynolds led UNC with 22 points including 11 of 11 from the free throw line. Reynolds was 5 of 8 from the field and he grabbed six rebounds. The game marked the sixth time this season Reynolds scored at least 20 points in a game. Reynolds’ season high is 31 against Prairie View on Nov. 23.
Rillie added 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the field with five rebounds and three assists. Forward Brock Wisne added 14 points and team-best seven rebounds.
Rillie, a graduate student in his second season at UNC, was a stand out last last week in a 68-64 win over Sacramento State in Greeley. Rillie hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 31 seconds Saturday to clinch the win over the Hornets and complete the home weekend sweep. UNC beat Portland State 72-69 in tight game Thursday night.
Guard Quinn Denker, who transferred to UNC from Idaho this year, added 12 points in his first of the season. The point total was Denker’s third highest of the season. He scored 16 at Texas Tech in late November and 13 against North Dakota State in early December. Denker played one season for Idaho in 2023-24, averaging 12.5 points while starting all 32 games.
Denker joining Wisne, Reynolds, Rillie and guard Zach Bloch in the starting lineup. Forward Isaiah Hawthorne did not start or play for the first time this season. Hawthorne, a graduate student in his first season with the Bears, started the previous 19 games and is the team’s second-leading scorer and rebounder behind Reynolds.
Reynolds is averaging 17.1 points and 5.8 rebounds. Hawthorne’s averaging 16.8 points and 5.6 rebounds.
UNC holds a one-game lead in the conference standings on second-place Montana. The Grizzlies are 5-2. Portland State is in third place at 4-2.
Northern Colorado plays Eastern Washington at 3 p.m. Saturday in Cheney, Washington. The Eagles are 2-5, in ninth place in the 10-team Big Sky and 6-14 overall.
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