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MISSOULA, Mont. -- Northern Colorado men's basketball must have discovered something last night during its late-night postgame bus ride from Bozeman to Missoula.

Whatever it was, it most affected senior Yahosh Bonner, who scored a career-high 19 points Saturday night, leading all scorers, and limited Montana's scoring stud Anthony Johnson as the Bears notched a 59-48 victory against Montana at Dahlberg Arena.

Mike Proctor and Will Figures contributed 11 points apiece and Figures also ripped down a career-high nine rebounds in the win that was Northern Colorado's first in Missoula since joining the Big Sky Conference and first since 1977. 

Bonner finished the night perfect from the free-throw line (10-10), and he also added two steals, a rebound and an assist for the Bears (8-1, 1-1 Big Sky), who responded remarkably to defeat the Grizzlies for a second straight time just a night after having a miserable time Friday in a frustrating 87-63 loss at Montana State, in the conference opener for both teams.

"The one word I wrote on the board before we came out here tonight was 'compete,'" Northern Colorado coach Tad Boyle said during his postgame interview with 1310 KFKA. "I said that if we would compete tonight -- and as a coach, you shouldn't have to beg for it and ask for it -- but, boy, they did tonight.

"We didn't play our best game offensively -- a couple guys had subpar games -- but we really got after it on the defensive end and made some key plays down the stretch. That's our identity. That's who I want us to be, and that's who we need to be."

As good as Bonner was with the ball in his hands, he was just as good, and probably better, when he was chasing and hounding Johnson, who entered the game averaging 20.3 points per game but scored just seven in this one for Montana (5-3, 1-1).

Johnson connected on just two of his 10 field-goal attempts Saturday and had three turnovers.

"Yahosh was unbelievable guarding Anthony Johnson all night long," Boyle said. "He just absolutely did an unbelievable job guarding one of the best offensive players in our league. We talk about defense all the time, and the thing I was most proud of about our team tonight was that we didn't let our struggles on offense affect us on the defensive end."

True-freshman Connor Osborne started for the first time in his career Saturday against the Grizzlies, and he contributed four points and three rebounds in 14 minutes of action.

Northern Colorado was aided in the victory by earning 30 trips to the free-throw line, and the Bears made 25 of those (83 percent).

"The thing I like about my team is that we bounced back after a really rough performance last night," Boyle said. "We came back tonight and really got our identitiy back and rose to the challenge. I wasn't the nicest guy after last night's game, but they really responded and I'm proud of them."