ST. PAUL, Minnesota - The Idaho State men's basketball team traveled to St. Paul, MN Friday evening to face off with the St. Thomas University Tommies.
The Bengals and Tommies would battle all game. Idaho State was able to grow the biggest lead of the game, winning by 9 with 4:27 left in the first half, but the Tommies would go on a 13-3 run in the final three and a half minutes of the half to take a 27-26 lead into the break.
The second half panned out to be just as thrilling as the first. The Tommies would get the jump on the Bengals, coming out of the break on an 8-2 run in the first three minutes of the second half, but the Bengals would stay within reach of the Tommies, never letting their lead grow to more than six. As the the second half began to windle down Idaho State saw the game within their reach, leading by four 53-49, with just 1:33 left to play thanks to an acrobatic Isaiah Griffin layup. However, late game situations plagued the Bengals in this one, as in the remaining 1:33 the Bengals went 0/2 from the field and missed 2 front-ends of one-and-one free-throws, allowing the Tommies to claim the 54-53 win off of two free-throws made by St.Thomas with just 3 seconds left to play. St. Thomas would finish the final 1:33 shooting 5/6 from the free-throw line. This is the first loss of the season for the Bengals, falling to 1-1 this season. With the win St. Thomas improves to 1-1 on the year.
Isaiah Griffin was the Bengals' leading scorer tonight as he put up 12 points on an efficient shooting night going 6-of-8 from the field, and tacking on six rebounds, one assist, and one steal. Miguel Tomley stuffed the stat sheet tonight, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. The two big men for Idaho State, Brayden Parker and Kiree Huie, each finished with eight points. Huie added five rebounds, and Parker added six rebounds and a steal. Maleek Arington finished the game with seven points, three assists, two steals, and one rebound. Off the bench Trent Johnson played a big role tonight. Chipping in for five points, one rebound, and one block and playing 31 minutes.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from deep finishing just 1-of-7 from three-point territory. The Bengals tallied 7 assists, 30 rebounds, and 7 steals.
St. Thomas finished the game shooting just 38.9 percent from the field and a mere 8.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Tommies led the Bengals in rebounds and assists tonight, as they finished with 9 assists and 36 boards.
The Idaho State men's basketball team will be back in action this Sunday, November 12th to take on the Iowa State Cyclones in Ames, Iowa at 11:00 AM MT. This game will be available to stream on ESPN+Â or you can follow along live with LiveStats.
