The men’s basketball team took a break from Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play on Saturday to participate in the Ramada Worldwide BracketBuster competition, where they defeated Northern Iowa 63-57 and simultaneously increased their winning streak to seven games.
The Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters competition is an annual two-day event that challenges NCAA Championship hopefuls against each other in 13 different games, nationally televised on ESPN.
“For us to be able to play in one of those games just gives our program and our university a chance to show that we’re getting better and better at basketball,” said head coach Joe Scott. “It also comes at a good time; if we can handle a little break from league play, it can give us a little freshness and get us out of that week-to-week grind of conference play.”
While earning their seventh straight win, the Pioneers simultaneously ended Northern Iowa’s six-game win streak.
“It was a great college basketball game,” said Scott. “Northern Iowa is a very good, well-coached team. We weathered the storm in the beginning. Our guys showed a lot of resilience and maintained it until the end. It was a good win for us.”
Sophomore Brett Olson led the team with 16 points and added five rebounds. Next in points was junior forward Chris Udofia with 12, followed by freshman point guard Jalen Love and senior point guard Chase Hallam, who added 11 points each.
Northern Iowa led the Pioneers 12-2 three minutes into the game before the Pioneers were able to even the score after about 15 minutes of play. By the end of the first half, however, Denver led the Panthers 32-25.
“They jumped out to a good start, but our guys stayed cool and calm,” said Scott. “Some guys made some big shots at that time, and then we just matched them. Our guys have had a little bit more experience over the last two months for a situation like that, and I think they came through with flying colors.”
Going into the second half, the score remained tightly contested at 52-53 with roughly two minutes left of the game. As the score remained tight, it came down to a matter of free throws by Love and Olson to put the Pioneers up 61-55. A final layup from Hallam ended the game with the Pioneers on top by six points.
The team finished its road schedule with an 8-6 record, the tenth-winningest road record in team history. Now, going into their final three games at home, the Pioneers are looking to finish strong, according to Scott.
“I think our whole season has prepared us for the last three games,” said Scott. “The way we started, playing a tough schedule and going on an eight-game run on the road, some of those games, like Utah State and tonight, were a really tough environment and really good basketball teams. I’m hopeful that it was the best preparation for being ready next Saturday against New Mexico State.”
The Pioneers are set to play on Saturday against New Mexico State, who holds a 19-9 overall record and a 12-3 WAC record, compared to Denver’s 18-8 overall and 13-2 conference record. New Mexico is ranked third in the WAC behind Denver at No. 2.
In their most recent game against the University of Texas at El Paso, the Aggies won 55-51 and were led in points by junior Kevin Aronis. Despite the win, the team shot a season-low of 22.7 percent from the field, sinking only five of their 22 shots.
After this Saturday’s game, the Pioneers will have one more weekend of home games the following week. They are set to challenge University of Texas Arlington, who recently lost a five-game winning streak to UC Irvine, on March 7. They will also face conference leader-Louisiana Tech on March 9.
“I told our guys that coming into the last games of the season, we’re playing nothing but good teams,” said Scott.
“For us to have these finishing three home games against quality opponents and with so much at stake, it’s sort of what you look for. We’ve had good crowds all year but it would be nice to see our students come out to see us against New Mexico State, which is one of the hotter teams in the country.”
