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POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team dropped its final home game of the 2016-17 season on Saturday night in Reed Gym, losing to Montana 95-76.
Ethan Telfair scored a game-high 32 points in his final home game. He was 8-23 from the field and made 15-16 free throws.
Geno Luzcando had 12 points and five rebounds and
Brandon Boyd had 11 points.
Montana shot 50 percent from the field and made 11-21 from the three-point line. Idaho State shot 44.4 percent but did make 24-29 free throws.
ISU only turned the ball over nine times and Montana had six turnovers.
"Montana is a good team and we couldn't stop them," Idaho State coach
Bill Evans said. "They drove it on us. They didn't shoot as many free throws as we shot but they got it to the basket. They got 14 more shots than us. They are a good team. They spread us out and drove it on us."
The Bengals led early in the game and held a five point lead at 9-4 with 16:30 left in the first half following a dunk by
Novak Topalovic. ISU's last lead of the game was 17-16 following a jumper by Telfair with 12:12 to play until halftime.
The score was tied at 24 following three Telfair free throws three minutes later. The Bengals trailed 34-31 with 5:09 left in the period when Montana closed out the half on a 14-3 run to take a 48-35 lead at the break.
Montana maintained its double digit lead the entire second half and led by as many as 21 points late in the game.
Idaho State goes into next week's Big Sky Conference tournament as the No.10 seed. The Bengals play No. 7 seed Sacramento Sate on Tuesday, March 7 at 5:35 p.m. The winner of that game plays No. 2 seed Eastern Washington.
Notes
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Ethan Telfair's 32 point game gives him eight games of scoring 30 points or more. Its the fourth best in ISU history.
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Ethan Telfair is now in 17th place on the ISU all-time scoring list with 1,107 points. Nate Green (1993-97) is in 16th with 1,141 points.
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Ethan Telfair has 129 career steals, ranking him third all-time.
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Ethan Telfair set a career-high in free throws made and attempted by going 15-16.
- Idaho State has now given up 90 points or more in six games. The Bengals are 1-24 when giving up 70 points or more.
- This was the 14th game ISU has allowed opponents to shoot 50 percent or greater.
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