Mason Peatling scores 19 points but Northern Colorado beats EWU 75-63

GREELEY, Colo. – Jordan Davis scored 30 points with five assists, freshman Bodie Hume had 21 points and eight rebounds and Northern Colorado beat Eastern Washington 75-63 on Monday night.

Mason Peatling had 19 points and nine rebounds for Eastern Washington (3-12, 1-3). Jesse Hunt added 14 points and five boards. The Eagles host rival Montana on Thursday.

The Bears sank 64 percent of their shots to open a 19-point lead at halftime and held off a second-half rally by the Eagles.

Eastern had a 14-2 run in the second half to cut into a Bears lead that had ballooned to 58-34 with 11:04 left in the contest. Eastern cut the lead to a dozen with 4:52 left, and five more times after that. But the Bears never relinquished their double-digit lead and closed out the game with a basket and two free throws by Davis.

“We have the culture of playing hard,” said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. “We have 13 or 14 players who can make plays, and there are going to be injuries and lulls during the season. But you always have to play hard and I have to figure out a way for our players to play hard for 40 minutes and not go through those lulls. We can’t put our heads down when teams make a run on us.”

Hume dominated the first half and Davis, the Big Sky’s leading scorer, did the same in the second 20 minutes in scoring 30-plus for the third time this season. Hume had 19 points in the first 20 minutes to help UNC build a 45-26 lead.

Hume has scored 18, 19, 12 and 21 points in his first four Big Sky Conference games for Northern Colorado (10-5, 4-0). UNC was 9 of 24 from distance to increase its league lead to 161 made 3s this season.