POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball game made a late second-half run to within one possession but the rally fell short, losing to Southern Utah 80-75 on Saturday night in Cedar City, Utah.
Malik Porter scored 21 points and grabbed four rebounds. He was a perfect 8-8 from the field.
Tarik Cool had 14 points and five assists
Idaho State shot 45.8 percent from the field while SUU shot 50 percent.
"Our guys are playing extremely hard," Idaho State coach
Ryan Looney said. "We have a few things we are having trouble overcoming."
Idaho State trailed 65-47 with 7:23 left in the game. With 3:09 left in the game the Bengals cut the T-Bird lead to 69-63 with 3:09 left. Cool later hit a 3-pointer 1:04 to play to cut the SUU lead to 71-68.
"We played different players and went with a smaller lineup," Looney said on the Bengals second half run. "We got some stops and were able to make some baskets."
Southern Utah hit its free throws down the stretch to keep the Bengals at bay. Cool would hit another 3-pointer with four seconds left to cut the Bengal deficit to 78-75 but SUU made its final two free throws with a second left to seal the win.
The game was close for a majority of the first half as the Bengals did lead for 12 of the 20 minutes. ISU's final lead of the game was 25-23 after a basket by Porter with 5:41 left. The Bengals trailed 30-27 with 3:29 left until halftime when SUU closed out the half on a 12-2 run to lead 42-31 at intermission.
"We lost our minds for a bit in the final minutes of the first half to allow them to go on a huge run," Looney said.
Idaho State hosts Northern Arizona on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. in Reed Gym. The Bengals then host Sacramento State on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.
