Pocatello, ID- The Idaho State men's basketball team was able to take care of business tonight against the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks, 79-53. This game opened Big Sky Conference play for both the Lumberjacks and Bengals. The loss drops NAU's record on the year to 4-10 and 0-1 in conference play.
The Bengals came out on fire early in the game, stretching their early lead to 25-10 in the first ten minutes of the game. The Bengals kept this momentum throughout the rest of the half and went in to the break leading by 23 points, 44-21. Idaho State found more of the same success in the 2
nd half and never looked back as they rolled to a 26-point victory.
The Lumberjacks did not have an answer for
Brock Mackenzie tonight as he finished with a season high 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point land.
Miguel Tomley added 13 points and a season high nine rebounds while
Brayden Parker had 10 points and five rebounds. It was an all-around team effort for the Bengals tonight as we saw
Kolby Lee and
Austin Smellie score nine points apiece and
Jordan Hansen finish with season highs eight points and three rebounds.
Idaho State shot 53.8 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep making 12 three-pointers on 24 attempts. The Bengals assisted on 13 made shots, and doubled up the Lumberjacks in rebounding 40-20. The Bengal defense held Northern Arizona to 40 percent shooting from the field and 23.1 percent from deep. The big surge from the Bengals to start the game played a big role in the victory as once they grabbed the lead they never looked back, leading for all but 2 minutes of the game. This win will lift the Bengals' record to 4-10 on the season and 1-0 in Big Sky play.
The Bengals will be back in action Saturday night, December 31
st against the University of Northern Colorado at 6 p.m. in Reed Gym.
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