Jan. 10, 2008
Final Stats
Pocatello, ID --- In a world of Top 10 Lists, Joe O'Brien's timeout at the 10:33 mark of the first half would probably make a Top 10 All-Time Great Timeout List, as his timeout effectively ended a huge 18-4 opening blitz by Eastern Washington, and the Bengals fought all the way back to win a hard-fought 58-56 game over the Eagles, improving to 2-0 in Big Sky play, and 5-10 overall.
Amazingly, the Bengals, by virtue of Montana State's 78-77 loss at Sacramento State, are the only undefeated team left in the Big Sky. Judging by the first 10 minutes of Thursday's contest, it looked doubtful that ISU would remain undefeated as well.
Idaho State scored the first three points of the game, but Eastern Washington got on the board when last year's Bengal-killer Marcus Hinton put the Eagles on the board at the 17:20 mark. Before anyone knew what happened, Eastern got three straight three-pointers, an array of other athletic baskets, and the Eagles led 18-4 and looked ready to run Idaho State out of Holt Arena.
However, Joe O'Brien quickly called a timeout and calmly gathered the troops and quelled the rally. "I just told them at the timeout you dug a 16-4 hole (actually 18-4) because you aren't playing hard, and you are just wandering...you look like you are in shootaround going five on zero."
"I said when you guys go slow you are easy to guard. The coaching staff can guard you, but when you start putting those big bodies in motion and cutting through there and banging into people and posting up you are a whole different basketball team."
A whole different team they were. Matt Stucki got the rally going with a three-point play, and then he found Logan Kinghorn for a layup to make it 18-9. ISU eventually tied the game at 20 on a Cory O'Brien backdoor layup after another Stucki pass. Stucki hit the final four points of the half for a 26-22 lead.
The game then see-sawed throughout the second half until ISU answered another Hinton jumper with Stucki basket to tie it at 41. Cory O'Brien then hit a 19-footer and Eastern would never lead again, although they tied the game with 2:11 to go for the seventh and final time on Milan Stanojevic's fifth three-pointer of the game, this on the run, to even it up at 53.
ISU then hustled to get two offensive board on the next possession, and Stucki dished his 10th assist to Lucas Steijn, who hit a 10-footer to give ISU the lead for good. Eastern had a chance to tie with 38.5 left, but Adris DeLeon missed the first of two foul shots, and they were forced to foul. Donnie Carson hit three of four free throws to give ISU a 58-54 lead, and Eastern's Gary Gibson hit a basket at the buzzer to account for the final score.
Stucki's double-double was his second in the last four games, and his first against a Division I school. Kinghorn led the Bengals with 14 points, and Lucas Steijn added 13. Donnie Carson, who had never scored in double-figures prior to the Northern Colorado game, against set a career-high with 11 points. Stanojevic led everyone with 19 points, including 5-of-10 from three-point range, and DeLeon had 13, and Kellen Williams, a Big Sky Player of the Year candidate, was held to just 11. The Bengals outrebounded Eastern 39-35.
Idaho State now gets two days to prepare for the Portland State Vikings, who lost to Weber State 73-68, dropping them to 2-2 on the season. Last year the Vikings swept the Bengals.
NOTES: Idaho State has outrebounded their opponent in all five wins ... after starting the game 1-for-11, the Bengals finished 21-for 43 ... ISU has now won three of their last four ... Eastern and Idaho State combined for 10 blocks ... Logan Kinghorn, who had one three-pointer all season long, when 2-for-3, accounting for ISU's only threes of the game.
