Box Score
POCATELLO, Idaho- Kenny McGowen scored a career-high 30 points and scored the game-winning layup with 10 seconds left in overtime to lift Idaho State to its fourth-straight win and an 87-86 victory at Montana State on Thursday night. The win moves the Bengals into third place in the conference at 6-4, tied with Montana State. ISU improved its overall record to 8-14 while Montana State dropped to 11-10.
The Bengals finished with four players in double figures. After McGowen's 30,
Chase Grabau had 16,
Abner Moreira had a career-high 14 points while
Andre Hatchett scored 12. McGowen was 9-for-18 from the field and made 7-of-14 3-pointers.
“Kenny stepped up and made big shots,” Idaho State Interim Head Coach Deane Martin said. “We are going to use him for all we can. We will get every shot out of him we can because there is no next year for him. He is really doing a good job.”
Idaho State shot 49.2 percent from the field while Montana State made 45.8 percent of its shot attempts. The Bengals took care of the ball turning the ball over only 10 times to the Bobcats 15. In the first half, ISU had only three turnovers.
“When a team only turns the ball over three in the first half, that is a team that knows what they are doing,” Martin said. “You have a group of guys that want to win a game and it showed in the first half.”
It was McGowen, who gave the Bengals a shot at the end of regulation to win the game when he hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to give ISU a 77-75 lead. Montana State then came back and tied the game at 77 when Tre Johnson scored on a dunk with four seconds left.
In the overtime period, ISU fell behind 83-79 with 3:30 left in the extra stanza. The Bengals then scored the next six points to take an 85-83 lead with 1:49 remaining after a 3 by McGowen, a free throw by Hatchett and a jumper by
Melvin Morgan.
MSU came back and took an 86-85 lead with 24 seconds remaining before McGowen made his game-winning layup. Montana State had one last attempt fall short as the clock expired.
Idaho State returns to the court on Monday, Feb. 6 at Montana. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live on 930 KSEI with
Jerry Miller calling the action.
