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POCATELLO, Idaho- In what Joe O'Brien called his team's best defensive effort of the season, the Idaho State men's basketball team defeated second-place Montana State 50-45 on Monday evening at ICCU Court in Holt Arena. The win ups the Bengals record to 6-13 and 2-5 in Big Sky play while Montana State dropped to 11-9 and 5-3 in conference.
“From a defensive standpoint this is as good as this team has been,” O'Brien said. “It took everything they did defensively to get the win.”
The Bengal defense held the Bobcats to 32.7 percent shooting from the field, forced 20 turnovers while holding MSU to a season low 45 points.
Idaho State shot 34.7 percent from the field and had 37 rebounds to Montana State's 40. Broderick Gilchrest led ISU with 18 points while playing all 40 minutes. Phyllip Taylor had 13 points and nine rebounds. Abner Moreira had eight points and nine rebounds while Deividas Busma had seven points, nine rebounds and eight blocks.
“It was an old blue collar basketball game,” O'Brien said. “There wasn't anything pretty about it but that is ok. We took a high scoring basketball team and held them to 45 points, a low shooting percentage and forced 20 turnovers.”
Idaho State led the entire game and held a lead as big as 13 points at 40-27 with 11:47 to play in the game. The Bengals led 42-33 with 9:07 to play when MSU went on a run to come within two points at at 45-43 four minutes later after a basket by Chris McCall.
The two teams then traded baskets to keep ISU up by two at 47-45 with 3:21 to play. With 42 seconds remaining, Moreira hit one of two free throws to extend the lead to 48-45. Montana State had two shots to tie the game in the final 20 seconds but those fell short and Taylor hit two free throws in the final second to seal the victory.
“We toughed it out,” O' Brien said. “It was a collective effort defensively.”
Idaho State led 25-19 at halftime and forced 11 first half Bobcat turnovers.
Idaho State returns to the road for a two-game trip at Sacramento State and Eastern Washington this weekend. The Bengals play at Sac State on Thursday at 8:05 p.m. and Eastern Washington on Saturday at 8:05 p.m. Both games can be heard live on 930 KSEI.
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