Nov. 17, 2007
Final Stats
Long Beach, CA --- Poised for the first non-conference road win of the Joe O'Brien era, ISU literally threw away their shot at a win, as a late turnover led to the tying field goal with 15 seconds left, leading to a game-tying basket, and the Long Beach State 49ers held ISU without a field goal in overtime as the 49ers defeated ISU in overtime 66-61.
The loss dropped the Bengals to 0-3 on the year, all on the road, and 0-6 over the last two years in overtime. Idaho State finally will return home on Wednesday at 6:05 pm against Montana State-Northern before taking to the road again for a pair of Thanksgiving weekend games.
The Bengals, who were cruising early with a 10-point lead, found themselves down 50-43 at the 5:33 mark, but the Bengals made a huge push down the stretch. First Matt Stucki, who had a game-high 19 points, hit a three to cut it to four. After a 49er (1-2) basket, Amorrow Morgan answered with one of his own, and then Stucki hit another three to cut it to 52-51 with 2:31 left.
After the teams traded point, Stucki hit a third late three with 39 second left for a 56-54 lead. Brian Freeman then turned the ball over underneath with 17 seconds left, but Chron Tatum's inbounds pass was picked off by Darnell Porter, and Brian Freeman hit a layup to tie the game with 11 seconds left. ISU couldn't get a shot off at the end as the 49ers had two fouls to give and disrupted ISU enough to force overtime.
In the OT, Long Beach went up 61-56 just over a minute in, but ISU could have tied it from the line, but Austin Kilpatrick went 1-for-2, and Stucki went 2-for-3 after getting fouled on a three-point attempt. After a Long Beach free throw, Tatum hit two to cut the game to 62-61, but Freeman hit a layup with 19 to go, and ISU couldn't hit a tying three, missing with Logan Kinghorn and Stucki. The 49ers tacked on two late free throws to end it.
Stucki's 19 led ISU, and Amorrow Morgan, making his first start of the season and second of his career, scored 14 and had five assists. Tatum added 14 as well. Donovan Morris was the only Long Beach State player in double-figures, scoring 20.
Neither team shot particularly well, with ISU at .377 and Long Beach at .383, and they teams combined for 35 turnovers as well. Long Beach did get 29 trips to the line to 17 for ISU, and the 49ers outrebounded ISU 36-32.
NOTES: Steve Anderson did not play for ISU ... Austin Kilpatrick made his first career start ... Tatum had nine rebounds and Morgan had eight ... Logan Kinghorn had two points and four turnovers, and now has two assists and 10 turnovers on the year.
