POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team lost to Washington State 72-61 on Sunday afternoon at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Washington.
Jared Stutzman led Idaho State with a season-high 21 points on 8-14 shooting from the field.
Chier Maker had 15 points while
Malik Porter had nine points and eight rebounds.
"Stutzman did a good job today," Idaho State coach
Ryan Looney said. "It was nice to see him knock a few shots down. Coreyoun (Rushin) did a great job defending and I thought Malik was active on the glass."
Idaho State shot 43.4 percent from the field and Washington State shot 43.8 percent. The Bengals out rebounded the Cougars 36-31.
The difference in the game came on the turnover end as Idaho State turned the ball over 20 times while Cougars had only seven turnovers. Idaho State made only six 3-pointers on 21 attempts.
"We did a horrible job taking care of the ball," Looney said. "It is never any fun to lose. The players are disappointed. We didn't do a good job in the first four minutes of the game sticking to the game plan. We are a work in progress on offense. We are never satisfied with 61 points. We understood at the beginning of the year that we were a work in progress."
Washington State led the entire game with its biggest lead being 14 late in the second half. Washington State scored 21 points off the 20 Bengal turnovers.
ISU fell behind 19-6 in the first seven minutes of the game. Later in the half, with Washington State leading 29-17 with 7:47 left until halftime, the Bengals went on a 10-2 run to cut the Cougar lead to 31-27 three minutes later after a basket by
Coreyoun Rushin.
Washington State went into halftime leading 37-32.
The Cougars biggest lead of the second half was 69-55 with 2:42 left in the game and 72-58 with 1:59 remaining. ISU got no closer than seven points at 52-45 after a basket by
Chier Maker.
Idaho State plays at Santa Clara on Nov. 22. Tip is at 8 p.m. Idaho State returns to Reed Gym on Nov. 27 for a contest against West Coast Baptist at 7 p.m.
