Bengals Take Down UT Rio Grande Valley 76-64

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team heads into the Christmas break with a victory. The Bengals rallied in the second-half to beat UT Rio Grande Valley 76-64 on Wednesday evening at the Spectrum in Logan, Utah. The Bengals improved to 4-7 while UTGRV dropped to 3-10.

This is the first time since the 2005-06 season that ISU has picked up two nonconference wins away from Pocatello. That year ISU won at Idaho and at UC Davis. ISU had already won at Portland prior to the neutral court win over Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Kyle Ingram led the Bengal offense with a season and career-high 19 points and 10 rebounds in a career-best 26 minutes.

"Kyle is really efficient," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "He doesn't make many mistakes. He did a really nice job."

Geno Luzcando had 17 points and five rebounds while Ethan Telfair had 15 and a career-best nine assists to only two turnovers.

Erik Nakken came off the bench to tie his career-high in points and minutes with nine points in 19 minutes of play.

"He played well and made shots tonight," Evans said. "He finds a way to keep people in front of him."

The Bengals shot 48 percent for the game and 53.6 percent in the second half. UT Rio Grande Valley was held to 39 percent shooting and 35 percent in the final 20 minutes. The Bengals out rebounded UTRGV 38-35 and was led by a career-best 13 from Ben Wilson and Ingram's 10.

"Ben has been really good at rebounding the ball and doing the things we need him to do," Evans said.

With 14:30 left in the game ISU trailed UT Rio Grande Valley 49-41. Over the final 14 minutes, ISU outscored Rio Grande Valley 35-15.

"We made baskets and got more aggressive on the offensive end," Evans said. "We defended pretty well. We went to a man in the second half and I was a little concerned at first how we would handle it but we got it done. That is a credit to our guys."

ISU took the lead for good at 61-59 with 8:58 remaining in the game on two Luzcando free throws. ISU took its first double-digit lead at 73-62 on a Telfair 3-pointer with 1:34 to play.

In the first half, ISU led 29-23 with 4:51 left. UT Rio Grande Valley then went on a 13-2 run to close out the half to lead 36-31 at the break.

Idaho State returns to the court on December 29 when it hosts Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m. at ICCU Court in Holt Arena.
Global Sports All-Tournament Team
MVP: Chris Smith - USU
- Geno Luzcando - ISU- Jalen Moore - USU