Men's Basketball Falls in Missoula

POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team lost 80-69 to Montana on Thursday evening at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula.

Although Montana led the entire game, Idaho State battled to stay within striking distance.

Brandon Boyd led Idaho State with 16 points and five assists. Balint Mocsan had 13 points while Alonzo Walker had 10 points and five rebounds and Gary Chivichyan had 10 points and a career-high seven rebounds.

Idaho State shot 43.4 percent from the field and made 15-20 from the free throw line. The Bengals made eight 3-pointers on 23 attempts and was out rebounded 37-36. Chier Maker had a team-high eight boards.

The Bengals turned the ball over 16 times while the Griz were only forced into nine turnovers.

"Our guys played really hard against a really good team," Idaho State coach Bill Evans said. "The turnovers really killed us but we did a lot of good things. We kept fighting and we kept playing hard."

The Bengals trailed 11-4 in the first five minutes of the game but battled back to cut the Montana lead to 13-11 with 13:14 left in the first half. Idaho State tied the game at 17 with 8:15 remaining in the half after two free throws by Jared Stutzman.

Montana then jumped out to a 31-21 lead with 3:08 to play. Idaho State ended the half on a 9-2 run to make the score 33-30 at halftime.

Montana opened the second half on a 14-1 run to stretch its lead to 49-31 with 14:13 to play. Idaho State would trail 51-33 before scoring the next eight points to cut its deficit to 51-41 three minutes later.

ISU cut the Montana lead to five at 59-54 with 7:05 to play and 61-56 with 6:36 to go before Montana pulled away in the final minutes.

ISU returns to the court on Saturday at 2 p.m. for a game at Montana State.