Bengals Drop Contest at North Dakota

 
POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team lost 81-58 to North Dakota on Thursday evening in Grand Forks, N.D.

Novak Topalovic led ISU with 12 points and eight rebounds. Gary Chivichyan had 11 points off the bench in 23 minutes of play. The Bengals shot 40.8 percent from the field. After shooting 50 percent in the first half, ISU was held to 33 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.  

The Bengals turned the ball over 17 times and was out rebounded 35-31.

"It was not a very good game for Idaho State tonight," Bengal coach Bill Evans said. "We got beat by a pretty good team. I like my team. I just didn't like the way we played tonight."

North Dakota led for 37 minutes of the game and held a lead as big as 24 in the final minute.

The Bengals were close early in the game and trailed 14-13 after a dunk by Topalovic. ISU would tie the game at 23 after back-to-back 3's by Brandon Boyd and Balint Mocsan with 9:23 left in the half.

The Fighting Hawks ended the first half on an 18-6 run to lead 41-29 at halftime. In the first five minutes of the second period the Fighting Hawks jumped out to a 52-31 lead with 15:17 left in the game.  ISU got no closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

Idaho State plays at Northern Colorado on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Notes
- With five points tonight,  Geno Luzcando now has 1,000 career points. He now ranks 22nd all-time on the ISU scoring list.
- Idaho State is now 8-7 overall and 3-1 in Big Sky Conference play.