Hansen Becomes ISU 3-Point King in 80-66 Win over NAU

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- Chris Hansen is the three-point king at Idaho State as he broke the career record for most 3-pointers made in the Bengals 80-66 win over Northern Arizona on Thursday night at ICCU Court in Holt Arena. Hansen now has 213 3-pointers in his career, breaking David Schroeder's record of 211.

Hansen also led ISU with 24 points and seven rebounds. He was one of four Bengals in double figures. Nnamdi Ezenwa had 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jeffrey Solarin had 12 points and Ben Wilson had 10 points and four assists.

ISU was 17-for-23 from the free throw line and made seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts.

"We took good shots and we made free throws," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "We didn't turn the ball over. We had been turning the ball over 15-16 times and today we only turned it over 10 times. We just made free throws tonight."

Idaho State shot 53.8 percent from the field and held NAU to 37.9 percent. The Bengal defense forced 15 turnovers which resulted in 25 points.

"I think defensively we were pretty dang good," Evans said. "We turned them over and we got easy baskets. We usually don't get easy baskets and we did tonight. Our defense created some opportunities."

Idaho State trailed 28-22 with 6:58 left in the first half. The Bengals then amped up the defensive pressure and went on a 20-4 run to take a 42-32 lead at halftime. The first half run was sparked by the defensive pressure of freshman Geno Luzcando.

"Geno was good," Evans said. "He played good and he is a really good defender."

ISU led by as many as 15 points at 61-46 with 9:06 left in the game after a layup by Solarin. NAU cut the Bengal lead to 69-64 with 4:19 remaining but ISU quickly extended the lead back to double digits at 75-64 thanks to a 3-pointer by Evann Hall and a three-point play by Hansen.

Idaho State hosts Southern Utah on Saturday at 7 p.m. at ICCU Court in Holt Arena.

Notes: Chris Hansen's 24 points moved him into 11th place on the ISU career scoring list. He has 1,230 points. David Schroeder is in 10th place with 1,265 points. Today he passed Ron Boone and Amorrow Morgan's 1,221 points.