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GREELEY, Colo. -- Northern Colorado senior Will Figures and junior Devon Beitzel gave Bears basketball fans an early holiday present Monday night against San Jose State.

They each hit six three-pointers against the Spartans, and they each scored 24 points, too, as Northern Colorado cruised to a 93-69 victory at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.

Figures and Beitzel helped a team effort that saw the Bears splash down a school-record 18 three-pointers -- their most since knocking down 17 against Morningside College in 2002 -- and score a season-best 55 points in the second half in convincingly defeating a team that knocked them off last season in San Jose.

"We recruit shooters so people can't zone us," Northern Colorado coach Tad Boyle said of Figures and Beitzel. "We got it going and when we watched a couple go in ... it's contagious."

Neal Kingman added 11 for Northern Colorado (10-3, 1-1 Big Sky), and Yahosh Bonner had nine for the Bears, who will now take a week off before hosting Denver at 7:05 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28.

Northern Colorado is off to its best start since opening 10-2 in 1988-89.

Figures and Beitzel have been the Bears' top two scorers for much of this season, but rarely have they got it going in tandem as they did tonight against the Spartans (5-5, 0-0 WAC), who implemented a zone defense for much of the contest.

For Beitzel, it was just a continuation of a two-game assault on San Jose State. The junior from Lafayette, Colo., knocked in a school-record 12 field goals against the Spartans last season in California, and now, after hitting a career-high six three against the Spartans tonight, is 20-of-24 from the field and nine-of-12 from three-point range against them in two contests in his career.

"We've been saying it all year, but we've got so many shooters on this team," Beitzel said. "When we get it going, it's a lot of fun, and teams can struggle to keep up with us. We've still got two-thirds of our season left to go, though, so we're not nearly where we want to be. We want to attain our goals of winning the Big Sky and making it to the NCAAs. We need to keep playing like we did tonight to make that happen."

Adrian Oliver led San Jose State with 26 points, and C.J. Webster contributed 16 for the Spartans, who were denied their first three-game winning streak of the year.

The Bears led by just five at the break, 38-33, but they pushed that bulge to 11 by the second half's first media break and then to 20, 81-61, when Bonner hit a three-pointer at the 5:51 mark. San Jose State never got closer than 17 over the final 5:40.

"We came into the game saying we can't let Figures and Beitzel get a lot of open looks," San Jose State coach George Nessman said. "I think for a while we contained them, but once they got it going, it's real hard to put that back in the bottle, and they got it rolling."

STILL RANKED: This week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll was released just prior to the Bears' tip against San Jose State, and Northern Colorado fell just one spot, to No. 23, in this week's survey of coaches from the nation's Mid-Major Conferences.

The Bears split last week against Louisiana Monroe (a win) and at Oklahoma (a loss) and received 87 votes in this week's poll to come in just ahead of Harvard (No. 24) and Long Beach State (25) and run its school record "ranked" streak to a fifth week.

Butler (22 first-place votes) moved back into the poll's top spot this week, with Northern Iowa, Gonzaga, St. Mary's and Cornell rounding out the top five.

Montana, the only other Big Sky team featured in this week's release, received 22 points, and Denver, whom Northern Colorado will face next Monday night, was right behind with 20 points.

The poll of mid-major coaches is now in its eleventh season and is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt and West Coast.