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POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team battled BYU of the West Coast Conference tough for the first half and early minutes of the second but two big second-half runs sparked the Cougars to an 84-58 victory over Idaho State on Tuesday evening at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, in front of a crowd of 13,553.
Idaho State trailed 39-31 at halftime and 41-36 early in the second half. BYU then went on a 15-5 run to take a 57-41 lead with 13:29 to play and they would later go on an 18-4 run to lead 75-51. BYU's biggest lead of the game was 28 at 84-56 with two minutes to play. BYU shot 65 percent in the second half while the Bengals were held to 32 percent shooting.
"We played good in the first half and weathered a storm," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "We showed some character and integrity. In the second half we stopped playing for a five to six minute stretch and they chewed us up."
Ethan Telfair led the Bengal offense with 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Geno Luzcando had 11 points and seven rebounds.
"Ethan did a good job tonight and Geno played really hard," Evans said. "Ethan's numbers don't look bad to me. He did good things and did what I asked."
Novak Topalovic had nine points and
Brandon Boyd added eight.
"Our guys did a much better job of getting Novak the ball today," Evans said.
Idaho State shot 34 percent while BYU shot 52 percent from the field. The Bengals were out rebounded 46-28 but they did come up with 13 steals and force 17 turnovers. ISU also had 15 assists on 21 baskets.
"We did a really good job of sharing the ball today," Evans said. "I think this was a step forward as we did some good things. Now we will see where we are at with conference starting."
Idaho State begins conference play Dec. 29 at Montana and then plays at Montana State on Dec. 31.
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