POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team battled Washington State tough for 23 minutes but the Cougars shot 53.8 percent in the second half to cruise to an 85-67 victory on Friday night at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash.
Idaho State shot 34 percent (23-67) for the game while WSU shot 48 percent (29-60).
Ali Faruq-Bey led the Bengal scoring with 19 while
Ethan Telfair had 15 and
Geno Luzcando 14. ISU was 11-17 from the free throw line while Washington State was 19-27.
"I don't think we were real good defensively or offensively," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said.
The Bengals hit 10 3-pointers on 31 attempts. Faruq-Bey was 5-12 from beyond the arc while Luzcando and Telfair each hit two.
Brandon Boyd hit a 3-pointer off the bench.
Idaho State was out rebounded 49-35.
Ben Wilson led the Bengals on the boards with seven.
The first 20 minutes was close for most of the half. ISU had three early leads at 2-0, 5-4 and 13-12 following a Faruq-Bey 3-pointer with 13:16 left in the first half. With the game tied at 16 eight minutes in, WSU scored the next six points to take a 22-16 lead.
The Cougars maintained the lead throughout the half, but the Bengals tied the game at 32 with 4:47 remaining following a three-point play by Telfair.
"All in all I see real positives," Evans said. "We are going to continue to get better. I have confidence in my guys. We had good athleticism and we competed hard. We just didn't play particularly well today."
Washington State then went on a 12-2 run to take a 44-34 with 1:31 remaining. The final bucket of the first half was a 3-pointer by Faruq-Bey to cut the WSU lead to 44-37 at the break.
Top open the second-half ISU fell behind 50-39 but six-straight ISU points, four by Luzcando, cut the WSU lead to 50-45 with 17:03 left in the game.
Washington State then went on an 11-4 run over the next five minutes to take a 61-49 lead. The Cougars biggest lead of the game was 20 at 80-60 with 5:24 remaining in the contest.
Idaho State returns to the court during the Thanksgiving Holiday for a game at Denver at 4 p.m. on November 25 and at Utah on Nov. 27. The contest against Utah tips off at 7 p.m.
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