Box Score
BOISE, Idaho- BOISE, Idaho- After trailing by as many as 13 points with seven minutes left in the game, the Idaho State men's basketball team rallied late to come within two points but it wasn't enough as the Idaho Vandals withstood the rally for the 69-65 victory on Friday night at Century Link Arena.Â
Chris Hansen had 23 points,
Tomas Sanchez 15 and
Evann Hall 11 to lead the Bengal scoring. ISU shot 44 percent from the field while Idaho shot 54.8 percent for the game and 64.7 percent in the second half.
Each team had 26 rebounds with Hall leading ISU with seven. Idaho was forced into 14 turnovers while ISU turned the ball over 11 times to 10 assists.
"I am very disappointed," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "We didn't defend again. It is a real frustration for me that we didn't defend. They drove us to death. We did a good job taking a way the arc but they drove the ball to the basket. We gave up three-point plays."
Idaho State led 32-30 at halftime but the Vandals went on a 16-5 run to take a 62-50 lead with 7:40 remaining.
The Bengals countered with 14-4 spurt to cut their deficit to 66-64 after a 3-pointer by Hansen with one minute left in the game.
Trailing by three at 67-64, the Bengals made one of two free throws and Idaho's Glen Dean put the game away by making two free throws with 7.9 seconds left.
"Our guys played with more integrity and got stops," Evans said on the late-game run. "We went through a period of time where we got no stops."
Idaho State led by as many as six points in the first half.
Idaho State returns to the court for a Dec. 28 contest vs. Bakersfield at Holt Arena. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
We Are Your Bengals
