Box Score
CEDAR CITY, Utah- It was quite the return for Idaho State men's basketball coach
Bill Evans. Evans, who was the head coach at SUU for 15, made his first return to Cedar City and the Bengals walked away with a 54-53 victory after a SUU last second shot fell short.
“It was intense,” Evans said. “It was a tough and physical game and I think I have been fairly consistent this week. Coming here and winning is special but winning is special period. It is hard to do and it is hard to win on the road.”
Idaho State improved to 2-3 in Big Sky Conference play and 3-11 overall while Southern Utah dropped to 5-10 and 3-3.
Tomas Sanchez had a career-high 18 points and five assists in 28 minutes of play. He was six-for-10 from the field and four-for-five from the 3-point line.
Chris Hansen had 17 points and six rebounds while
Melvin Morgan had 10 points and five rebounds.
Andre Hatchett tied his season-high in rebounds with seven.
Idaho State shot 34 percent from the field for the game but held SUU to 32.1 percent shooting. The Bengals forced 16 SUU turnovers, 10 coming in the second half while ISU turned the ball over only 10 times.
SUU shot only 27.3 percent in the second half. There were 14 ties and 12 lead changes in the game.
ISU took the 54-53 lead with 1:37 left in regulation after a free throw by Hansen. SUU had the ball with 12 seconds remaining and had two chances at a shot but the Bengals defended well and the T-Birds last second attempts fell short.
“Both teams really hard and it came down to the last possession for them,” Evans said. “We did a pretty good job of defending their out of bounce play. Southern Utah played really hard and really well and our guys matched their level of intensity.”
Trailing 26-17, ISU closed out the first half on an 11-2 run to trail 28-26 at halftime. During the run, Sanchez hit two 3-pointers and Hansen added another to give ISU the spark.
“He played really good,” Evans said on Sanchez and Hansen. “Chris did a nice job and played really hard. Melvin made some big free throws down the stretch for us and played hard. It was a good college basketball game.”
Idaho State then opened the second half on another 11-2 run to lead 37-30 with 16:07 to play following a layup by Hatchett. SUU countered the run and took a 42-39 lead with 9:23 to play in the contest. Each team continued to make strong defensive stops and trade leads over the remaining minutes of the game.
With ISU trailing 53-51 with 2:27 to play, Morgan hit a jumper with 1:57 left to tie the game and Hansen hit one of two free throws with 1:37 to give ISU what would be the game-winning point.
“It was a good game,” Evans said. “Southern Utah has a tough team and our guys matched them blow to blow so-to speak. Defensively we were good. We made some adjustments that our guys adjusted too.”
Idaho State continues a busy stretch of games next week as it plays three games at Holt Arena, starting Monday, January 14 vs. Weber State. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and any fan that wears white to the game can get a ticket for $5. Idaho State also hosts Sacramento State on Thursday, January 17 and Northern Arizona on Saturday, January 19. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
We Are Your Bengals
