Feb. 28, 2009
Final Stats
Pocatello, ID --- ISU's two seniors couldn't have come from further away, Matt Stucki from Pocatello, and Lucas Steijn from the Netherlands. On senior night, they couldn't have been more together as Steijn recorded his first career double-double, and Matt Stucki scored seven points and had eight assists and no turnovers as the Bengals defeated Northern Arizona 71-49, giving Idaho State a 9-7 conference record, their first winning Big Sky mark since the 2001 season, and just the second in the last 12 years.
The day started with a ceremony honoring both Stucki and Steijn, along with student assistant Cody Cranor, but it looked like NAU was out to spoil the party, despite not having a shot at the conference tournament. The Lumbackjacks pounded the ball inside early, hitting four of their first six shots in bolting to a 9-2 lead. ISU responded with an 18-4 run however, highlighted by four three-pointers, including back-to-back-to-back ones by Austin Kilpatrick, Amorrow Morgan, and then Kilpatrick again. Northern Arizona eventually tied the game back up at 22-22 with 7:25 on a Zarko Comagic three-pointer from the corner, and Joe O'Brien called time. Whatever he said worked, because ISU proceeded to shut out the 'Jacks 15-0 for the rest of the half, punctuated by an alley-oop dunk from Stucki to Kilpatrick.
From there, NAU never got closer than 13, for the last time with 9:25 left in the game, but Kilpatrick, who hit a season-high five threes, drained his last to push it to 16, and then Steijn ended a quick 9-0 run with an emphatic dunk to push the lead to 22. Felix Caspari also added a dunk later in another 8-0 run as NAU never got the ISU lead under 20 for the rest of the game.
"Other than the first five minutes, I'm really happy with how we played," said head coach Joe O'Brien, who saw his team record their 25th conference win in the last three years, the best such three-year run in 31 years for the Bengals. "I looked up and saw they had 22 points with seven minutes left, and I really didn't think we'd keep them at 22, but we did."
The win gives ISU a 9-7 conference record, and only the 2001 team that went 10-6 has been better in the last 12 years. Idaho State will enter next week's conference tournament as the #4 seed, and they will host the winner of tomorrow's Northern Colorado-Montana State game at Holt Arena on Saturday, March 7 at 7:05 pm. Both MSU and UNC are in the tournament as the Bobcats clinched the final slot after Eastern Washington lost 66-62 to Portland State in overtime on Saturday night.
For the Bengals, Kilpatrick led them with a season-high 17 points, Steijn added 13 (and 10 rebounds), Chron Tatum had 12 and Morgan added 10. Josh Lepley was the only Lumberjack in double figures with 18. ISU recorded a whopping 24 assists to just eight turnovers, and ISU outscored the Lumberjack off turnovers 23-8 and on second chance points 14-1.
NOTES: The last time Idaho State won back-to-back conference games by 20 or more points, you have to go back over 32 years, as ISU beat Idaho 89-60, and Gonzaga 103-66 ... Austin Kilpatrick moved into third place on the career three-pointer chart with 131, and he is five behind second place Jeff Gardner ... Stucki moved ahead of Marquis Poole and into third place on the career assist list with 291, and he tied Jim Potter for fifth in steals with 110 ... ISU's eight threes was a season-high
