Photo Gallery Press ConferenceRENO, Nev. – One of the best season's in the last 30 year's came to an end on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference basketball tournament as the Idaho State men's basketball team lost 83-49 to North Dakota at the Reno Events Center.
"What was wrong with us was North Dakota," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "You need to give them a lot of credit for what they did. They did a really good job defensively. We missed some shots we might normally make. I said going into this that they are a team that could win this tournament. I think they are a really good team."
After an opening basket by
Ethan Telfair to give ISU a 3-0 lead, North Dakota took control of the game to jump out to a 29-9 lead with 7:52 left in the first half. The Bengals were held scoreless for nearly seven minutes in the first half as the Fighting Hawks jumped out to a 40-10 lead with four minutes left in the period.
The Bengals at one point cut the North Dakota lead to 17 at 52-35 with 12:32 left in the game. ISU got no closer as North Dakota extended its lead to as many 35 points with 1:42 left in game.
Ethan Telfair had 17 points and
Geno Luzcando scored 10.
Stephen Lennox played 13 minutes off the bench and had a career-high nine rebounds.
Ben Wilson had eight points and six rebounds.
"I thought we came in ready to play," Wilson said. "They came out and smacked us. They threw the first punch and we couldn't get going. Full credit goes to North Dakota."
North Dakota shot 46.7 percent from the field while the Bengals were held to 26.8 percent. ISU was out rebounded 55-31.
The Bengals finished the season 16-15 and had a .516 winning percentage, the seventh best percentage since the 1976-77 season. The 11-7 conference record was the best mark since the 1993-94 team.
ISU boasted the conferences Newcomer of the Year and first-team all-league honoree in Telfair. Evans was named the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year and Luzcando earned honorable mention all-
league.
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