Bengals Take Down Portland State 73-70

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team picked up its first road win in conference play, beating Portland State 73-70 on Saturday night at the Stott Center. The Bengals improved to 7-10 and 2-3 in league play while the Vikings dropped to 6-10 and 2-3.

"This was a good road win," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "Road wins are hard to come by. I was pleased with how my guys performed against a good team."

Four Bengals scored in double figures led by Ethan Telfair's 25 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. Telfair was 8-18 from the field, made 8-9 free throws and only turned the ball three times. The Bengal point guard had eight of his 11 assists in the first half. The 11 assists is the most by a Bengal in a game since Tomas Sanchez had 11 on Jan. 4, 2014.

Geno Luzcando had 12 points and four rebounds and Ben Wilson had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Ingram had 10 points before fouling out.

ISU shot 52 percent for the game and held Portland State to 36 percent shooting. The Bengals out rebounded the Vikings 43-37.

"I think we can rebound the ball when we put our minds to it," Evans said. "We are a capable rebounding team."

Idaho State led for a majority of the game. PSU held an 11-10 lead early before ISU went on a 12-2 run to lead 22-13 thanks to a Wilson layup with 9:46 left in the first half. Portland State cut the ISU lead to 24-21 with six minutes left in the period but ISU extended its lead to double digits at 41-31 at the break.

Idaho State led by as many as 12 points several times in the first 10 minutes of the second half and led by 14 at 63-49 following another Wilson layup with 9:11 to play.

Portland State then went on a run to cut the ISU lead to 71-68 with 1:37 to play in the game. With the score still at 71-68, Portland State had the ball with under 30 seconds to play when Luzcando came up with a steal and layup to put ISU on top 73-68.

"Geno did a really good job," Evans said. "I knew he would play well. I call him El Toro when he is playing well and that means he is a bull. That was really big because the lead went from three to five."

Idaho State returns home to host Weber State on Saturday, January 23 at 7 p.m. at ICCU Court in Reed Gym.

"I am excited about the opportunity to play a really good Weber State team," Evans said. "Weber and Montana are the best teams in the league. This is a great opportunity to play a really good team."