Box Score
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team battled WAC perennial powerhouse Utah State tough on Saturday night in the season at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan but lost, 56-48 in front of a crowd of 9,607.
Idaho State shot 39.6 percent from the field (19-for-48) while USU shot 46.8 percent (22-for-47). Utah State out rebounded the Bengals 36-23. The Idaho State defense forced 17 Aggie turnovers while only turning the ball over 12 times.
“My guys played really hard," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "That's where things have to start. If you don't play, you don't have a chance. I was proud of the way they played. I wish we could have scored 10 more points. We've got to somehow be able to throw
the ball in the post for the easy baskets. You can't live and die from the arc. The kid that made the threes, Spencer
Butterfield, hadn't made a three all year and got them against us, and that was the difference. He's a good player and
we knew that. We didn't do as good of a job getting to him as we needed to. We've got Monday and Tuesday and
Wednesday to get better.”
Melvin Morgan led Idaho State in scoring with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field.
Tomas Sanchez had nine points and
Chris Hansen had eight points. Sanchez also had seven assists and four steals.
Utah State's biggest lead of the game was 13 points at 24-11 with 5:24 left in the first half. Idaho State got within three points two different times in the second half. With 9:19 left in the game and USU clinging to a 40-37 lead, the Aggies outscored the Bengals 12-5 over the next eight minutes to lead 52-42 with 1:41 left in the game.
Idaho State returns to the court on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. (MST) at the University of Portland. The game will be heard live on 930 KSEI and 102.5 KMGI.
We Are Your Bengals
