Box Score
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah- The Idaho State basketball team lost to Utah on Friday evening at the Huntsman Center, 71-59 in front of a crowd of 7,295.
The Bengals (2-8) led for a majority of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half but with ISU leading 48-46 with 10:36 to play, the Utes (2-8) went on a 20-5 run over the next seven minutes to take a 66-53 lead with 3:51 remaining. Utah never looked back after the second-half run.
Idaho State was led in scoring by
Melvin Morgan's 13 points while
Chase Grabau had 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Abner Moreira had a team-high eight rebounds.
The Bengals shot 39.6 percent from the field and had 13 assists to 15 turnovers. Both teams had 30 rebounds in contest. Utah shot 48.9 percent from the field and had 18 assists to 12 turnovers.
Idaho State led 34-31 at halftime and built a 43-35 lead after a 3-pointer by Morgan with 15:39 to play in the game. ISU maintained its lead until the Utes went on their second-half run to earn the victory. Utah shot 54 percent from the field in the second half while ISU was held to 33 percent shooting.
Idaho State controlled the first 25 minutes of the game and led by as many nine points at 26-17 with 4:33 remaining in the first-period after a basket by
Jakub Kusmieruk.
Before Utah took the lead for good in the second half at 51-48 with 9:18 to play the only lead Utah had was at 5-2 less than two minutes into the game.
Garrett Swanson and
Kenny McGowen each had seven points in the first half to lead the way.
Idaho State plays its final game before Christmas on Dec. 22 at Holt Arena against Wyoming from the Mountain West Conference. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. There are $2 tickets being sold at the Idaho State Ticket Office at Holt Arena.
Joe O'Brien quotes
“That is the same comparison I made. We just shut it down earlier. It seems like every time things start to go well, we get tired of success. We were hitting back door layups and moving the ball well and then all of a sudden we stopped everything.”
“Defensively we did a good job of getting people to take jump shots early then we started letting them shoot some 3's. Momentum swung and it killed us.”
“The offense over the last 12 or 13 minutes was as stagnant as any group I ever coached in my coaching career. We stopped moving. We abandoned the people with the basketball. It was like whoever had the ball was on an island.”
“They picked up the pressure but all that did was open up driving lanes but Sherrod was the only one who took advantage of it until later in the half after they had a decent lead when Chase started too. We didn't take advantage of what they were giving us.”
“It is not fair to ask a freshman to step up on the road and make big shots down the stretch. He came in the first half and gave us a nice boost by scoring seven points in the six minutes. It was what we needed at that time.”
“I think we continue to get good minutes out of Sherrod. He takes the shots he can make. I thought Garrett gave us really good minutes in the first half.”
“Chase continues to do what Chase can do. He gets some assists, scores 10 or 11 points, gets some rebounds because he plays hard.”
