PROVO, Utah- The Idaho State men's basketball team battled BYU tough for 40 minutes before losing 85-71 in front of a crowd of 14,660 on a Thursday night at the Marriott Center.
Novak Topalovic had a season-high 16 points on 8-12 shooting.
Geno Luzcando had 15 points and a career-high 10 assists to only two turnovers. Jared Stutzman had 11 points, nine coming in the second half. Blake Truman came off the bench to have a career-high seven points.
Idaho State shot 51 percent from the field but BYU shot 58.3 percent. Idaho State had a season-high 19 assists on only 12 turnovers. ISU was 8-23 from the three-point line and 5-9 from the free throw line.
BYU was 22-29 from the foul line and made seven 3-pointers on 14 attempts. BYU out rebounded ISU 29-26. Yoeli Childs had a game-high 20 points.
The Bengals went back and forth with BYU for the first 13 minutes of the game. Topalovic scored 10 of BYU's first 12 points to tie the game at 12 with 13:21 left in the first half. ISU held early leads of 4-2 and 6-4 during this stretch.
BYU led 16-12 with 12:05 left until halftime when Blake Truman hit a 3-pointer and Luzcando had a layup to give ISU a 17-16 lead at the 10:16 mark. ISU led 19-18 after two free throws by Luzcando. BYU took the lead for good at 21-19 a minute later.
ISU trailed 23-21 with 8:11 left in the first half. BYU then went on a 14-4 run to take a 37-25 lead. BYU led 41-30 at halftime.
BYU scored the first seven points to take a 48-30 lead one minute into the second half. BYU led 54-34 at the 15:11 mark of the second half. Every time BYU made a run in the second half, ISU made a run to cut its deficit 12-to-13 points.
The Bengals hit three-straight 3-pointers to cut the BYU lead to 56-43 with 13:29 left in the game. During the run Stutzman hit two 3's and
Brandon Boyd hit one.
Idaho State cut the BYU lead to 70-58 with 5:51 remaining after a dunk by Topalovic. ISU got no closer the rest of the way.
Idaho State closes out nonconference play on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 4 p.m. mountain time at CSUN. The Bengals then open Big Sky Conference play Dec. 30 at Weber State.
Bill Evans Post Game Quotes
"We had some good performances. I think Geno played outstanding. I think Novak and Jared were ok. Balint didn't play as well but that happens to everyone. You are not going to play great every night. Our guys played hard the entire time. We got down by 20 and we cut it to 12. BYU has a good team. We came in and competed hard and as a coach if you do that every night you will win some games."
"I think Yoeli Childs is clever and athletic. He is very patient and a very good player."
"I think our guys played hard. We stayed the course and didn't get selfish. Sometimes when you get down you start doing stupid stuff. I don't think our guys did that. They played the way we want them to play for 40 minutes. That is the best game Geno has ever played. I have to get guys to not be so one dimensional. We get zeroed in on one thing and you forget the other end. I wasn't pleased with the way we defended at all."
Â
