ISU Hosts UVU on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Holt Arena

Men's Basketball | 12/10/2015 5:15:00 PM

Game Notes | Audio | Video | Live Stats | Tickets

POCATELLO, Idaho- After five straight road games, the Idaho State men's basketball team returns home for the first of only two home games in the month of December. The Bengals host Utah Valley University of the Western Athletic Conference on Saturday, Dec. 12 in Holt Arena. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. Jerry Miller and Brad Bugger will call the action live on 101.1 KEIR. The Bengals final home game in December is the 29th in Holt Arena vs. Cal State Northridge.

Utah Valley is 3-6 and scoring 71.6 points a game. Konner Frey leads UVU in scoring at 16.2 points and 7.6 rebounds a game. Marcel Davis is scoring 11.6 points and Jaden Jackson is netting 11.7. The Wolverines are shooting .412 percent from the field, .307 percent from the three-point line and averaging 38.4 rebounds a game, while dishing out 12.7 assists and turning it over 15.9 times a game. Utah Valley has already played three Big Sky Conference schools, most recently winning at home vs. Weber State, 84-81, in double overtime. UVU lost 76-72 at home to Montana State and 68-54 to SUU.

Series vs. Utah Valley
Idaho State leads the series 4-3 but the two teams played twice last year and UVU won both meetings. The Wolverines won 60-57 in Pocatello and 51-47 in Orem.

Bengal Bites
- Idaho State is sixth in the conference in scoring at 76 points a game.
- ISU is 10th in the conference in scoring defense at 81.4 points allowed.
- ISU is fourth in the conference in free throw shooting at .719 and ninth in field goal percentage at .410.
- ISU is ninth in the conference field goal percentage defense at .475.
- ISU is second in the conference in three-point field goal percentage at .387.
- ISU is 11th in the conference in rebounding at 33.9.
- Idaho State is 3-0 this season when hitting 11 3-pointers or more in a game.
- This year's Bengal team is averaging 33.9 rebounds a game. Last year's team averaged 32.4.
- In the last 10 seasons the most road games ISU has won in a season is five in  2005-06.
- ISU is 6-66 in non-conference road/neutral court games over the last seven years. ISU is 21-14 in non-conference home games over that same time period.  
- By the end of nonconference play Idaho State will have played Division I teams from eight different conferences; Pac 12, Summit League, Southland, West Coast, WAC, Missouri Valley, Mountain West and Big West.

Long Range
Through the first seven games Idaho State is shooting .387 percent from the 3-point line and has made 72 3's on 186 attempts. Last year through the first seven games ISU was 38-122 from beyond the arc and shooting .311 percent. It took the Bengals 17 games to make 74 3-pointers last year. The 74 3's were made on 259 attempts.

Scoring the Ball
Since the 2004-05 season there have been two teams average more than 70 points a game. The 2005-06 team scored 78.7 points a game and the 2013-14 team netted 70.8 points. This year's team is scoring 76 points a contest. The 76 points a contest right now would rank as the 18th best average in ISU history. The school record for most points averaged per game is 90.5 by the 1965-66 team.

On the flip side, ISU is allowing 81.4 points a game. That mark would rank ninth all-time in ISU history for most points allowed per-game.

Did You Know...
Since the 2005-06 season ISU has seven road nonconference wins over Division I teams. The Bengals have won at Idaho twice, at UMKC during the 2009-10 season, at UC Davis during the 2005-06 season, at San Fransisco (2013-14), Grand Canyon (2014-15) and at Portland (2015-16). The wins over USF, Grand Canyon and Portland have come under Evans.