Box Score
POCATELLO, Idaho- Despite a career-high of 24 points from Kenny McGowen, the Idaho State men's basketball team lost at Eastern Washington 83-70 on Saturday evening. Idaho State dropped to 6-15 and 2-7 in Big Sky play while Eastern Washington improved to 7-14 and 4-5 in conference play.
McGowen scored his 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 10-of-14 shooting from the free throw line. Deividas Busma had 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Busma and Abner Moriera led the Bengals in rebounding with five.
Idaho State shot 41.7 percent for the game including 47.6 percent in the second half but Eastern Washington scorched the nets, especially in the second half as the Eagles shot 66.7 in the final 20 minutes and 52.8 percent for the game. EWU was 13-for-24 from the 3-point line and 9-for-12 in the second half.
“The story of the game is 54 percent shooting from the 3-point line,” Idaho State coach Joe O'Brien said. “This team plays very well at home. I don't think we played poor but we didn't play well enough on the road.”
The Bengals led for the majority of the first half and held a lead as big as 10 points at 28-18 with 4:03 to play in the period after two free throws by McGowen. The Eagles then went on a 12-5 run over the final four minutes to cut the Bengals lead to 33-30 at the break.
Eastern Washington took the lead for good at 37-35 after a 3-pointer by Cliff Colimon from Eastern Washington with 17:16 left in the game. EWU stretched its lead to as many as 15 points in the second half at 70-55 with 4:26 to play. The Bengals got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
The Bengals have a week off before returning to the court on Saturday, Feb. 5 when they play host to Eastern Washington at 7 p.m. at ICCU Court in Holt Arena.
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