Feb. 16, 2008
Final Stats
Cheney, WA --- Idaho State University had better stats than Eastern Washington, but one, turnovers, led to the other, points, as the Bengals turned the ball over 23 times accounting for a whopping 27 points as the Eagles gave their fading conference tournament hopes a serious boost with a 63-53 win for the Eagles.
The win pushes Eastern Washington to 6-8 in the Big Sky, while Idaho State drops to 6-6, and the Bengals suffered their third straight loss. Even worse, Idaho State now probably has to finish above Eastern in the standings, as the Eagles would have the tiebreaker between the two teams in a head-to-head tie as Eastern has a win over first place Portland State.
The Bengals never led in the game, and the story were the turnovers. Idaho State had 12 at the break, and committed 12 more after the half. Idaho State and Eastern were tied at 8-8 early, but the Eagles raced to a 12-point lead when Marcus Hinton hit a layup for a 27-15 lead with 4:07 left in the half. However, the Bengals battled back with an 11-2 run to end the half, cutting it to 29-26 at the break. ISU then scored the first basket of the second half, and had a chance to tie on the ensuing free throw, but it rimmed out for Matt Stucki.
After forcing a miss, Amorrow Morgan suffered a turnover, one of his team-high six, and that ignited a quick 8-0 Eastern run. The Eagles eventually pushed the lead to 13 before Lucas Steijn nearly willed ISU back into the game, as he scored 13 of ISU's next 14 points over a six minute span to cut the lead all the way down to six at 52-46 with 3:43, but Eastern scored on their next three possessions, and the Eagles cruised from there.
The Bengals and Eagles basically shot the same, although Eastern had more field goals, and the Bengals outrebounded Eastern 30-26, but the Eagles turned 24 turnovers into 27 points, and ISU only got 10 points off 12 Eastern turnovers.
"I'm still in shock and disbelief about the 24 turnovers. There were some real positives in this game, but the 24 turnovers just totally overshadow anything like that," said Associate Head Coach Steve Swanson after the game. "We understood their defensive philosophy after the first few minutes and called a timeout, but we never did change on offense, and guys kept trying to drive and that caused a lot of those turnovers."
"I think we played hard for 30 or 35 minutes, but the question is can we take care of the ball. I hate to keep harping on that, but I don't think it's fatigue or anything, we just have to fix that," added Swanson. "Lucas did a nice job in the second half, battling through a lot of things, and really played well for us."
Steijn led the Bengals with 15 points, 13 in the second half, and with six rebounds. Logan Kinghorn was the only other Bengal in double-figures with 10. For Eastern Washington, Brandon Moore had 14, Kellen Williams had 13, and Marcus Hinton had 11. Williams added nine rebounds.
Idaho State now returns home needing to protect their home court for the final two home games, starting this Thursday night against Montana State. The Bobcats are 6-5 in the conference, and they host Sacramento State on Sunday afternoon at 2:05 pm. Idaho State will then host Montana in what is shaping up as a huge game on Sunday afternoon in the home regular season finale at 2:07 pm.
NOTES: Idaho State has now scored less than 60 in 13 of their 25 games this year ... Donnie Carson was still feeling under the weather, and didn't score for the second straight game ... ISU has lost five straight in Cheney ... the Bengals are 14-14 in conference over the last two years.
