Jan. 30, 2010
Final Stats
Complete Stat Packet: Sacramento State 72, Idaho State 55 
Pocatello, ID --- Idaho State's two-game winning streak crashed with a vengeance as Sacramento State shot .524 from the field for the game and .474 from the three, and they got a double-double from Duro Bjegovic as the Hornets used a 16-0 first half run to pull away from Idaho State and win 72-55 at Reed Gym, ending their 27-game conference road losing streak.
Things went ISU's way early on, as Chron Tatum scored off a putback with 11:58 to go to give the Bengals a 15-9 lead, but it was pretty much all Hornets from there. Sacramento State got three straight threes from Jonathan Malloy and then back-tob-ack triples by Sultan Toles-Bey to make it 18-15. After two free throws, Malloy hit a layup to make it 22-15, and another Toles-Bey triple made it 25-15, extending the run to 16-0 before Donnie Carson ended it with 5:04 left with a tip-in, ending a 5:06 scoreless drought.
However, the Hornets ballooned the lead to as much as 14 in the first half and ended the half up 36-23. The lead eventually got all the way up to 19 before ISU started chipping away, and a pair of Amorrow Morgan free throws cut it to 63-53 with 1:58 left, but with the Hornets in their four-corners offense, that was way too wide a margin to overcome. The Hornets went to the line 16 times over the final 2:41, scoring their final nine points from the stripe.
The Bengals were hurt by their own dynamic duo of Morgan and Gilchrest, who entered the game averaging nearly 40 points combined, but they were just 9-of-30 shooting combined for 23 points, including an 0-for-9 mark from three.
For the Hornets, who won for the first time in Big Sky play on the road since December 30, 2006 when they beat Northern Colorado 74-70, Toles-Bey led the way with 20 points, followed by Bjegovic's double-double or 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Jonathan Malloys' 16. Broderick Gilchrest led ISU with 14 points, and Chron Tatum added 12, along with 10 from Donnie Carson.
The Hornets were extremely efficient with the ball, going 22-of-42 and turning it over just five times. The Bengals were just 22-of-57 from the field with only nine turnovers, but a paltry 2-for-15 from the three after hitting 30 in the last three games.
Head coach Joe O'Brien didn't have a lot of praise for the team afterwards, except for Tatum, who was 6-of-7 from the field and had nine rebounds. "He was efficient. When he got touches he scored it, he worked the boards, and he didn't turn the ball over," said O'Brien. "I thought we missed him wide open under the basket a dozen times...it was like everyone was in a fog."
The Bengals now head to the Montanas to take on Montana State on Friday night and Montana on Saturday night, both games at 7:05 pm.
NOTES: The win gives the Hornets a season sweep of the Bengals, and the Hornets now have three conference wins in the last two years, all against the Bengals ... Morgan's streak of double-figure scoring games ended at 13 ... ISU will have to win the conference tournament to avoid a losing record.
