POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State men's basketball team beat Portland State 64-57 on Thursday night at Viking Pavilion. Idaho State is now 8-6 overall and 5-2 in Big Sky Conference play.
Tarik Cool led the Idaho State scoring with 17 points on 6-12 shooting. He had four rebounds and four assists.
Austin Smellie had 13 points and six rebounds and
Emmit Taylor III had 12 points off the bench.
Malik Porter had eight points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Idaho State shot 48.8 percent from the field and held Portland State to 33.9 percent shooting from the field.
Portland State held small leads early in the game. The Vikings last lead was 15-13 with 10:01 left in the first half. The Bengals then scored six straight points thanks to two Taylor 3-pointers to lead 19-15 two minutes later.
The Vikings tied the game at 19 but ISU then went on a 7-2 run to lead 26-21 with 4:06 left in the half after a Smellie 3-pointer. Idaho State would lead 30-25 at halftime.
Idaho State never trailed in the second half and led by as many as eight points at three different times in the second half. Portland State cut the ISU lead to two several times in the second half but with each Viking run the Bengals were able to extend the lead.
The two teams play again Saturday at 1 p.m. (MST).
