Ezenwa Scores Career High in Loss to UVU

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POCATELLO, Idaho- Nnamdi Ezenwa scored a career-high 18 points but it wasn't enough as Idaho State lost to Utah Valley University 60-57 on Wednesday night.

Along with Ezenwa's 18 points he also posted a career-best eight rebounds while hitting four-of-six 3-pointers.

Evann Hall had a season–high eight points and Jeffrey Solarin led the Bengals in rebounds, tallying 10.

The Bengals shot 39 percent from the field and 58 percent from the free throw line. ISU had only five turnovers, while UVU had 11. The Bengals tallied seven steals to the Wolverines one.   

"They made less mistakes then we did," Ezenwa said. "In a game as close as this the team that makes the less mistakes is going to win. We had a couple of mental lapses on defense and they were able to execute their plays. They made plays when they needed to."

Utah Valley took a quick lead of 11-4 with 14:22 left in the first half. The Bengals fought back tying the Wolverines at 25 in the first. Ezenwa tied the game at 25 on a layup with 3:01 left in the first half but a late 3-pointer by the Wolverines gave them a 28-25 lead at the break.  

To open the second half, the Wolverines led by nine at 38-29 with 16:06 to go in the game. UVU led the entire second half but the Bengals rallied to come within one point at 53-52 with 2:03 left in the game after Ezenwa hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game.

"We are a team that hopefully learned some stuff tonight," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "Our press was pretty good today. It changed the tempo of the game. They made a couple of big shots as the clock was winding down. We need to do a better job of paying attention to detail. We made a couple mistakes today that we worked on over and over and we still made the mistake. This is a game of mistakes and the team that makes the most mistakes usually loses."

The Bengals got no closer than two points the rest of the way.

Idaho State hosts Montana Western Dec. 2 in Holt Arena. Tip-off is at 7:05 p.m.