POCATELLO, Idaho- Idaho State men's basketball team won its third straight game and its seventh in eight games after beating Southern Utah 93-78 on Thursday night at ICCU Court in Holt Arena. The Bengals are now 7-6 and 2-0 in Big Sky play while SUU dropped to 6-8 and 0-3 in league.
Idaho State had five players score in double figures, led by
Brandon Boyd's 24 points on 9-15 shooting in 31 minutes off the bench.
Jared Stutzman had a career-high 23 points on 7-12 shooting in 36 minutes of play.
Balint Mocsan had 15,
Geno Luzcando 13 and
Novak Topalovic had 12. Luzcando also had a team-high eight rebounds to go with six assists and four steals. Boyd had five assists and three steals.
The Bengals shot a season-best 58.8 percent from the field. ISU was 12-23 from the three-point line and 21-32 from the free throw line. The Bengals had 14 assists to only 12 turnovers.
Southern Utah shot 51.7 percent and out rebounded Idaho State 32-26.
ISU led for all by two minutes of the game and led by as many as 18 points late in the second half.
The game was close early as the Bengals led 22-21 with 9:12 left until halftime. ISU then went on a 14-4 run that was capped off by a Topalovic basket with 5:22 remaining in the half to up the lead to 36-25.
Southern Utah cut the ISU lead to six twice in the remaining minutes of the first half but the Bengals maintained a 49-42 lead at halftime.
ISU led 57-47 after a Stutzman 3-pointer three minutes into the second half. Southern Utah would cut the Bengal lead to four at six different occasions during the second half with the most recent time being 68-64 with 8:49 left in the game.
ISU then went to a zone defense, sparking an 18-4 run to lead 86-68 after a Boyd dunk with 2:36 to play.
Southern Utah got no closer than 13 points the rest way.
Idaho State hosts NAU Saturday, January 6 at 7 p.m. at ICCU Court in Holt Arena.
Game Notes
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Jared Stutzman had a career-high 23 points.
- This is the first time ISU is 2-0 in league play since the 2013-14 season. That year Idaho State beat Portland State and Eastern Washington at home.
- This is the first time since the 2015-16 season the Bengals have won seven of the last eight games.
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Geno Luzcando now has 196 career steals after recording four tonight.
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Geno Luzcando is 11 points from reaching the 1,000 point barrier. He has 989 career points as a Bengal.
- The Bengals are 8-0 under
Bill Evans when scoring 90 points or more.
- Five of ISU's seven wins have come win the Bengals have four or more players score in double figures.
- ISU is 6-0 under
Bill Evans when five players score in double figures.
- Five assists by
Brandon Boyd ties his career-high. He had five at Washington State earlier this year.
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