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POCATELLO, Idaho- A late second-half rally was not enough for the Idaho State men's basketball team as the Bengals dropped a 73-69 decision to Montana State on Thursday night in Bozeman, Montana.
Montana State led by as many as 18 points with 16:51 left in the game. Idaho State cut its deficit to 62-56 with 8:30 remaining after a
Nico Aguirre 3-pointer. Idaho State would get within three points at 68-65 with 22 seconds left in the game. That would be closest ISU would get.
Malik Porter led the Bengals with 14 points.
Tarik Cool scored 13 while
Jared Stutzman had 12 and
Austin Smellie 11.
The Bengals were out rebounded 37-29 with
Chier Maker leading the way with 10.
Idaho State shot 40 percent from the field while the Bobcats shot 56 percent.
Idaho State trailed 41-29 at halftime. The first half saw MSU shoot 69 percent from the field while Idaho State was held to 36 percent shooting.
"We dug ourselves into a hole in the first eight minutes," Idaho State coach
Ryan Looney said. "We didn't get too many stops. I think we only got two stops in the first eight minutes. We had a rut we had to get out of but I am proud of how we fought."
Looney added on his team's second-half rally, "The guys played hard defensively. We started to press and mix in a zone on the back end. There are no moral victories but we won the second half by eight points."
Idaho State returns to the court on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. vs. Montana in Missoula.
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