March 8, 2003
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Box Score
Pocatello, ID - Idaho State University got a 20-point effort from David Schroeder, who nailed six threes for the second straight game against Northern Arizona, as the Bengals won their first conference tournament game in eight years with an 95-74 win over Northern Arizona.
The Lumberjacks, the tournament's #5 seed, ends the season at 15-13. The Bengals, the tournament's #4 seed, improved to that same 15-13 mark, giving the Bengals their first winning season since 1996-97, when they went 14-13. It's also the most wins since 1994-95, when they won 18.
The Bengals trailed just twice in the contest, the last time at 9-7, but Rashad Kirkland hit his first dunk of the season, and then followed with a layup and ISU led 11-9 and never trailed after that. Kirkland's two baskets keyed a 13-0 ISU run that put the Bengals up 20-9. It stayed in double-figures much of the way after that, with ISU's biggest first half lead at 17.
ISU pushed the lead to 18 in the second half before NAU came storming back, as Kyle Feuerbach canned three threes and Kelly Golob added another to cut the lead to single digits, and Aaron Bond's dunk made it 62-55 with 10:24 left. However, two Jeremy Brown free throws and a Danny Boticki putback pushed the lead to 11, and it never got lower than nine after that.
Northern Arizona's Ryan McDade, playing in his final game, recorded his league-leading 11th double-double, with 22 points and 16 rebounds, tying the fourth-highest total in tournament history. Kelly Golob added 15, Feuerbach 13, and Aaron Bond 12 for NAU. For the Bengals, in addition to Schroeder's 20, Marquis Poole scored 19 and added assists. Rashad Kirkland added 14 off the bench, and Scott Henry had 11 rebounds.
