Game Notes
BOZEMAN, Mont.- Idaho State (9-19, 4-11) closes out the 2010-11 season with a 7 p.m. contest at Montana State (12-17, 6-9) on Wednesday. The game can be heard live on 930 KSEI with
Jerry Miller calling the action.
Montana State leads the overall series 99-79 but the Bengals have won four of the last six meetings against Montana State. Idaho State's last win in Bozeman was Feb. 19, 2009, a 63-56 victory.
Erik Rush leads the Bobcats in scoring at 15.1 points a game while Bobby Howard is scoring 14.7 points. Howard is grabbing a team-best 7.1 rebounds. As a team, MSU is scoring 66.7 points a game and 64 in Big Sky games.
So Close
This season the Bengals have suffered eight losses by 10 points or less, five of the losses are by six points or less. In the 2009-10 season, ISU suffered 10 losses by 10 points or less, six of them by six points or less.
Long Range
The 12 3-pointers Idaho State made against Cal State Fullerton was the most since making 13 against Northern Arizona on Feb. 1, 2007. The most 3-pointers made by an ISU team in the last six years is 15 against Montana Tech on Dec. 1, 2004.
Taking Care of the Rock
In the Bengals win at Portland State they had a season-low seven turnovers. ISU also had seven turnovers at Creighton. In the last 17 games, ISU is averaging 11.9 turnovers a game. In the first 11 games of the season ISU averaged 15.4 turnovers with a season-high of 23 at Iowa. During the 17-game stretch, the Bengals have had 12 games ofs 13 turnovers of less, four of the games being less than 10.
Solid off the Bench
Since coming off the bench, Phyl Taylor has played his best basketball of his Idaho State career since coming off the bench five games ago. He had a career-high 22 points in an overtime win over Northern Arizona on Feb. 12. He had nine points and seven assists in the 84-79 win at Portland State and he added 16 in a loss to Eastern Washington. In the nonconference win over Cal State Fullerton he had 14 points in 27 minutes off the bench.
Getting offensive
Idaho State is 3-3 in the last six games. During this stretch it has had its three best offensive performances of the season, scoring 84 points in wins over Portland State and Cal State Fullerton and 90 vs. Northern Arizona. At Portland, ISU was 32-for-67 from the field with a season-low seven turnovers. On Saturday, the Bengals were 34-for-71 with only nine turnovers. ISU shot 48 percent from the field in all three wins. The 90 points vs. Northern Arizona was the third best team-offensive performance under O'Brien while the 84 points at Portland State and home vs. Cal State Fullerton was the seventh-best offensive performance under an O'Brien coached team at Idaho State. The most points ISU has scored in a game under O'Brien was 98 in a 2OT loss to NAU on Feb. 1, 2007. Four of the nine top scoring games have come against Portland State and Northern Arizona.
Block Party
Deividas Busma's eight blocks against Montana State was a career-high and a Big Sky season-best mark. His eight blocks is the most since Slim Millien had eight blocks on Feb. 25, 2006 vs. Weber State. No other Bengal player has had eight blocks in a game. Busma currently has 85 blocks and is tied with Jim Potter (1991-95) at sixth place. He has had a block in 18 straight game.
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