Box Score
OGDEN, Utah- Chase Grabau scored a career-high 31 points and the Idaho State men's basketball team battled the top team in the conference Weber State to the final buzzer before falling 78-64 on Thursday evening at the Dee Events Center in front of a crowd of 6,071.
Grabau was 9-for-13 from the field and 10-for-11 from the free throw line to go along with seven rebounds and two assists in 38 minutes of play.
Abner Moreira also had seven rebounds and
Andre Hatchett had six rebounds off the bench. Grabau was the only Bengal in double figures.
For the game, ISU shot 38.5 percent from the field and was out rebounded 31-28. Weber State shot 52.2 percent from the field and Damian Lillard had 26 points. ISU had only 13 turnovers, four coming in the second half while the Wildcats had 14.
The Bengals battled with Weber State early as they took a 9-7 lead at the 13:44 mark of the first half thanks to two 3-pointers by Morgan and one by McGowen. ISU last led 12-11 after a free throw by
Dejan Kostur with 11:37 left in the period.
Later in the period Idaho State trailed 21-17 with 7:46 left when Weber State out-scored the Bengals 16-6 over the rest of the half to lead 37-23 at the break.
ISU fell behind by 21 early at 49-28 five minutes into the second half. But the Bengals then went on an 11-4 run to cut the WSU lead to 53-40 with 13:24 following two free throws by Grabau. The Bengals later came with 12 points at 59-47 following a 3-pointer by
Garrett Swanson with 11:37 to play in the contest.
Another layup by Grabau a minute later after a Wildcat basket gave WSU a 61-49. That would be the closest the Bengals got the rest of the way.
Idaho State plays at Northern Colorado on Monday, Jan. 2. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. The game can be heard live on 930 AM with
Jerry Miller calling the action.
Deane Martin Post Game Quotes
“I thought we made some progress. Wyoming was pretty ugly. Again in the first half we had some good stuff going on and then toward the end it just went crazy. Tonight we had nine turnovers for 13 points in the first half for them and we lose by 14. That is a pretty obvious thing. That is something our guys realize they can clean up. We are happy with the way we made some progress. Offensively we made them defend us and we got some good shots but we just got careless with it for a little bit.”
“Chase played a great game. He is a guy who some nights will give you what he did tonight but every night he has a line that will be good. He will have nine rebounds. He will give you 10 points, have some assists and low turnovers. He gives you everything he has got. On a night like tonight he got some points and that was great for us tonight.”
“For the most part we made a lot of progress and we were happy about that. We had careless plays in the first half that cost us but in the second half we made them guard us. We came down and had great looks in transition. We ran our offense. We got to the foul line early and that was big for us in the second half.”
“They believed they know they can win games if they play the right.”
