SACRAMENTO, California – The Idaho State men's basketball team wrapped up their West Coast road-trip Saturday night in Sacramento, California. The Sacramento State Hornets hosted the Bengals, the Bengals have fallen to the Hornets in 4 of their last 5 meetings.
Idaho State and Portland State fought all first half, neither team able to extend their leads larger than four points. After a tight first half that consisted of six ties and five lead changes Idaho State took a one-point advantage into halftime, 35-34.
In the second half it was more of the same, hard-nosed basketball as the first half, however, the Hornets would take the largest lead of the game after a 7-0 run to give themselves a 58-51 lead over the Bengals with 7:29 remaining. Idaho State would fight their way back into the game,
Maleek Arington would find Isaiah Johnson to cut the Hornet lead to just two, and following a stop on the defensive end,
Maleek Arington would find a cutting
Miguel Tomley this time to tie the ball game up a 64 apiece with 12.5 seconds left in the game. On the other end the Hornets would hit a heavily contested floater with .2 seconds remaining and go on to down the Bengals by a final score of 66-64. Following the loss, Idaho State falls to 6-11 overall and 1-3 in Big Sky play. With win loss Sacramento State moves to 6-11 overall and 2-2 in Big Sky play.
Miguel Tomley led the way for Idaho State tonight, with 16 points, one assist, three rebounds, and one block.
Kiree Huie would tally 14 points, three rebounds, and three blocks, and fellow big man,
Brayden Parker, finished tonight with nine points, three rebounds, and one steal.
Maleek Arington put up nine points, six assists, three steals, and one rebound, and the final starter for Idaho State,
Isaiah Griffin, recorded nine points, a team-high five rebounds, and one assist. Coming in off the bench
AJ Burgin continued his hot-streak as of late, scoring seven points and going a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and recording one steal in 17 minutes of action.
Trent Johnson also came in off the bench for ISU, Johnson tallied two steals, one assist, and one rebounds in 16 minutes.
With his 9 points tonight,
Brayden Parker (1,064) moves past
Tarik Cool (1,058) for 21
st place on the ISU All-Time Scoring leaderboard. Parker also now sits at 94 career blocks. Just five blocks shy of tying Jeff Cook for 4
th on the ISU All-Time Blocks list.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 52 percent from the field, and 33.3 percent from three-point land, going 5-of-15 from deep. The Bengals tallied 9 assists, 16 rebounds (a season low) and 7 steals.
Sacramento State finished the game shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from three-point territory (4-for-11). The Hornets finished with 38 rebounds, 3 steals, and 13 assists.
The Bengal men's basketball team will return home to Reed Gym to host rivals, the Idaho Vandals, on Thursday, January 18
th at 7 PM and then Eastern Washington on Saturday, January 20
th at 6 PM. Dylan Carder will have the call on ESPN+ and Scott Gross will have the call on KISU.
