Jan. 18, 2007
Final Stats
Missoula, MT --- Idaho State picked up a huge night from Akbar Abdul-Ahad who scored a career-high tying 26 points, and the Bengals defeated Montana 79-69, just their third win in Missoula in the last 31 years. The win, coupled with Weber State's 63-48 loss in Bozeman means ISU is two games ahead of every team in the loss column.
Abdul-Ahad's big night offset a career night by Matt Dlouhy of Montana (8-10, 2-3), who scored a career-high 27 points. While Dlouhy was able to hurt Idaho State (10-8, 5-0), the Bengals held everyone else in check, including Montana's leading scorer Andrew Strait, who scored just four points, all in the second half after the game was essentially over.
While it ended great for Idaho State, it didn't start out that way as Montana hit seven of their first nine shots and built up an 18-7 lead early at the 15:21 mark, but the Bengals slowly chipped away, with David Schroeder keying the run. David, who hit just one three but scored 22 points, drove and scored on a variety of layups and short jumpers four times as ISU clawed back. John Ofoegbu's jumper in the lane gave the Bengals their first lead at 24-23, and after the teams traded scoring, Abdul-Ahad nailed one of his career-high tying six threes to give the Bengals the lead for good at the 5:16 mark 31-29.
In the second half, Montana hit the first two baskets to cut the lead that was six down to just two, but they would get no closer. After another Dlouhy three made it 46-43, the Bengals went on a crushing 14-1 run over a 6:51 span to put ISU comfortably up 60-44. The lead got to 17 before a barrage of late threes (four in the last 2:09) made the game closer.
The "Razor" forced the Griz to take 37 threes on the night (out of 59 shots), and they did hit 16, but overall, Montana shot only .407 from the field. Picking up the pieces was Nicholas Rhodes, who continued his solid play, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds in a career-high 36 minutes of action. Rhodes helped the Bengals to a 35-29 rebounding edge.
The Bengals were hot all night long, shooting .574 for the game, and .500 from the three-point line. Along with Abdul-Ahad and Schroeder, John Ofoegbu was also in double-figures at 12 points, and he led ISU with four assists. Other than Dlouhy, Jordan Hasquet scored 14 and Matt Martin added 13, although 10 of those came in the opening five minutes.
The Bengals now head to Bozeman to take on Montana State at 7:05 pm in Worthington Arena, while Montana hosts second place Weber State, also at 7:05, in Dalhberg Arena.
NOTES: With the win, Idaho State has now defeated both Montana and Weber State on the road for the first time since 1974 ... the win was the first for the Bengals this season when Abdul-Ahad led the team in scoring, as they were 0-5 ... ISU has won three straight road games after losing their first eight ... ISU's bench played just 32 minutes ... Abdul-Ahad was 6-of-8 from the three-point line.
