POCATELLO, Idaho- In a game that had 15 ties and 14 lead changes, the Idaho State men's basketball team came out on the short end of an 82-70 defeat to Lamar on Saturday night in Beaumont, Texas.
Ali Faruq-Bey led the Bengals with 16 points. He scored 10 of his 16 points from the free throw line.
Kyle Ingram led ISU with 15 points on seven-of-eight shooting from the field. He also grabbed four rebounds.
Geno Luzcando had 11 points.
ISU shot 41.5 percent from the field but was held to 21 percent shooting from the three-point line (4-19).
"We missed a bunch of open looks," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "We just didn't make baskets tonight."
For the first time this season the Bengals out rebounded their opponent, winning the battle of the boards 37-32.
Ben Wilson had a team-best seven rebounds. ISU turned the ball over 16 times to Lamar's 11.
"We didn't want to turn the ball over against their pressure and we really didn't," Evans said. "But we still turned it over 16 times."
Both teams combined to shoot 70 free throws. ISU was 22-31 from the line while Lamar made 26 on 39 attempts.
Idaho State built an 11-point lead at 30-19 with 7:21 left until halftime following a 3-pointer by
Gary Chivichyan. The final seven minutes of the half belonged to Lamar as the Cardinals went on a 20-6 run to lead 39-36 at the break.
The Bengals had three one-point leads in the first four minutes of the second half and held a 50-47 lead following a Chivichyan 3-pointer with 14:35 left in the game.
ISU later led 54-53 following two free throws by Faruq-Bey two minutes later but that would be the last lead of the game. With the score tied at 59 with 10 minutes left, Lamar went on a 9-2 run to take a 68-61 lead with 6:49 to play.
The Bengals got no closer than three points the rest of the way and the final score was Lamar's biggest lead of the game.
Idaho State plays at Portland on Tuesday, December 8. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. mountain time.
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