POCATELLO, Idaho - The Idaho State men's basketball team took on Southern Oregon University in Reed Gym for their home opener of the 2024-25 season on Monday night, defeating the Raiders by a final score of 87-63.
The Bengals would strike first thanks to a
Jake O'Neil turnaround jumpshot in the paint, followed by a
Dylan Darling triple to give ISU a 5-0 advantage early. The Raiders would prove to be a tough opponent for Idaho State early on, keeping pace with the Bengals as they trailed by just six, 15-9 with 13:41 to play in the first half. However, ISU would finally start to click as the Bengals would proceed to go on a 28-8 run over the next eight minutes and 20 seconds to balloon their lead to 43-18 with just 5:20 remaining in the first half. As the half drew to an end the Bengals would take an 18-point lead, 47-29 into the break.
Southern Oregon would come out in the second half firing on all cylinders, going on a 8-0 run to cut the Bengal lead down to just 10, 47-37. However, Idaho State would maintain their cool and their double-digit lead for the rest of the game, their largest lead coming with just a minute and two seconds to play, at 26 points, 87-61, and the final score would end with the Bengals on top, 87-63. Following the win, Idaho State will move to 1-2 on the season.
It was a team effort on the scoreboard tonight, as we saw five Bengals finish with double-digits in scoring.
Jake O'Neil finished with game-highs in scoring and rebounding tonight, ending with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, eight rebounds, and one steal.
Dylan Darling recorded 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting, five assists, three rebounds, two steals, and one block,
Isaiah Griffin finished tonight with 10 points and five rebounds, and
Evan Otten ended with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, four rebounds, two blocks, one steal, and one assist. The final Bengal starter was
Connor Hollenbeck who would stuff the stat sheet, putting up seven points, six rebounds, four assists, one block, and one steal. Off the bench
AJ Burgin would tally 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor and 2-of-5 from three-point range, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 19 minutes of play. Also coming in off the bench to make an impact was
Jaedyn Brown,
Quentin Meza,
Blake Daberkow, and
Jackson Greene. Brown would finish tonight with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc and five rebounds, Meza would drop six points, six assists, and one rebound, Daberkow would contribute four points and five rebounds, and Greene would provide the Bengals with two points, three rebounds, and three blocks.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 48.5 percent from the field, and 31.8 percent from deep finishing 7-of-22 from three-point territory. The Bengals would end the game outrebounding SOU by 23, finishing with 44 rebounds while also tallying 19 assists and 7 steals.
The Raiders finished the game shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from beyond the arc. SOU would finish with 10 assists, 21 boards, and 4 steals.
The Idaho State men's basketball team will be back in the road for the next three games in a row, traveling to the west coast to take on the University of San Diego on Saturday, November 16
th at 1 p.m. MT, Cal State Fullerton on Monday, November 18
th at 8 p.m. MT, and UCLA on Wednesday, November 20
th at 9 p.m. MT. The Bengals' games at USD and CSUF will be available to stream on ESPN+, and ISU's game at UCLA will be streamed on the BIG10 Network, or you can follow along live for all three games with LiveStats.
SUPPORT THE BENGALS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Idaho State athletic events by visiting idahostate.evenue.net/list/Athl. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 208-282-4093 or by email at joyerin@isu.edu
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