POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team took down league favorite Eastern Washington 75-69 on Monday night in Reed Gym.
Chier Maker had a career-high 24 points, 15 coming in the first half while
Tarik Cool added 22 points with 17 in the second half.
Maker was 9-10 from the field and 4-5 from the three-point line while adding seven rebounds. Cool scored his 22 points on 9-16 shooting.
Idaho State shot 58.7 percent from the field including 70 percent in the second half (14—20).
Eastern Washington entered Monday night's game leading the nation in scoring at 88.6 points a game. The Bengal defense held the Eagles to 20 points under their average. Eastern Washington shot 41.5 percent from the field and made only six 3-pointers on 24 attempts.
The Bengals out rebounded Eastern Washington 37-30.
Jared Stutzman had a career-high 10 rebounds while Maker finished with seven.
Idaho State led for 29 minutes and 22 seconds and held a 37-30 lead at halftime.
Eastern Washington led early in the first half. With the Eagles leading 20-16 with 9:04 left, Idaho State went on an 8-0 run to lead 24-20 with 6:12 left after a three-point play by Maker.
Following the 8-0 run, Idaho State led the rest of the game. Clinging to a 31-29 lead with 2:35 to play in the half, the Bengals closed out the final minutes on a 6-1 run to lead 37-30 at the break.
Idaho State led 50-47 with eight minutes left in the second half when it went on a 10-2 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 60-49 with 4:46 to play after a basket by Cool.
The Eagles got within two at 68-66 with 47 seconds left but Maker hit a 3-pointer five seconds later to ice the game for the Bengals. With 20 seconds left, Idaho State led 73-66 following an
Austin Smellie free throw.
Idaho State returns to the court on Jan. 4 for an 8 p.m. (MST) contest at Sacramento State.
Notes
- The win snapped a five game losing streak to Eastern Washington.
- Idaho State is 2-0 in Big Sky play for the second time in three years. The 2017-18 team started Big Sky play 3-0.
- Idaho State has out rebounded its opponents in eight of 11 games.
- Idaho State is 4-0 when shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
- This was Idaho State's first win when committing 16 turnovers or more.
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Chier Maker's previous career-high was 21 points in the win at Air Force.
- Idaho State is 4-0 when scoring 70 points or more and 4-1 when allowing less than 70 points.
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Jared Stutzman's 10 rebounds was a career-high. His previous high was eight vs. NAU.
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