LOS ANGELES, California - The Bengal men's basketball team took the court for the second time of the young 2024-25 season on Thursday night, facing off against the USC Trojans for just the second time in program history, looking to secure the program's first win over a Power 4 school since 2008.
The Bengals would strike first following an
Isaiah Griffin 3-point basket, but USC would look to flex their muscles early, proceeding to go on a 16-4 run to gain a nine point advantage with 13:16 left in the first half. The Trojans would increase their lead to 12, the largest of the first half. However, the Bengals would come back swinging, going on an 8-0 run after triples by
Jake O'Neil and
Dylan Darling on back-to-back possessions, cutting the Trojan lead down to just 4, 19-15.
Jake O'Neil would hit a jumper from just inside the paint with 4:18 to play in the half to knot the score up at 25 apiece, but USC would go into the halftime break on top, leading Idaho State by three, 38-35.
ISU and USC would battle it out the entire second half, the Bengals would not allow the Trojans to get their lead larger than eight, coming with 15:18 left to play. The Bengals would go on a 6-0 run over the next three minutes to cut the lead back down to just two, 51-49. With 8:45 to play
Dylan Darling would sink two huge free-throws to give Idaho State their first lead, 58-57, since the score was 5-4. The Bengals would find themselves back down 2 with 4:30 to play, but thanks to an emphatic
Evan Otten dunk Idaho State would tie things up at 63. USC would go on to make three free-throws and a mid-range jump shot, but
Jake O'Neil would provide Idaho State with two huge late game layups, the second cutting the deficit down to just one point, 67-68 with 1:40 to play. However, the Trojans would bleed the clock out the next two possessions and would cap it off by hitting a huge three-pointer, giving themselves a four point cushion over Idaho State with just 18 seconds on the clock.
Dylan Darling would get a driving layup to fall with four seconds left but USC would hit all four of their end of game free-throws to finish things off in LA. Idaho State will fall to 0-2 following the loss and the Trojans will improve to 2-0.
"Something special is brewing with our team" says Head Coach
Ryan Looney following the Bengals narrow loss to USC. "We are defending and rebounding, and our guys made progress on offense tonight as well.
We knew this week would be very challenging for us with a new team. We are excited to get home and play in front of our Bengal fans. Pocatello is going to love these guys."
Dylan Darling led the charge for Idaho State tonight, finishing with a career-high 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, a career-high seven assists, two rebounds, and one block. Darling records Idaho State's first 20+ point & 5+ assist game since Bengal great, Brandon Boyd, during the 2018-19 season. The other Bengal finishing in double-digits for scoring in this one was
Isaiah Griffin, who would end with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field, and four rebounds. Captain,
Jake O'Neil, would flirt with his second double-double in as many games this season, finishing just one point and rebound shy as he ended his night with nine points, nine rebounds, three assists, and one block. Starting big-man,
Evan Otten, would have the best game of his young Bengal career, finishing with career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, and tying his career-high in blocks as he put up seven points, 12 rebounds, two blocks, and one assist. The final starter for ISU was
Connor Hollenbeck who would end tonight with seven points and two rebounds. Off the bench for Idaho State
Jackson Greene and
Blake Daberkow would make big impact. Greene would end up fouling out after 16 minutes of action, recording six points and three rebounds, while Daberkow would put up four points, two rebounds, one block, and one assist in 12 minutes.
AJ Burgin and
Quentin Meza would round out the Bengal scoring, each contributing two points.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 46.7 percent from the field, and 33.3 percent from deep, shooting 4-of-12 from three-point territory. The Bengals would end the game outrebounding USC by 15, finishing with 40 rebounds while also tallying 12 assists and 4 blocks.
The Trojans finished the game shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc. USC would finish with 20 assists, 25 boards, and 3 blocks. The Trojans would win the turnover battle by a wide margin, forcing Idaho State to commit 17 turnovers leading to 18 Trojan points, compared to USC's 6 turnovers which ISU turned into 4 points.
The Bengal men's basketball team will be back in Reed Gym for the first time this season as Idaho State is set to host Southern Oregon University on Monday, November 11
th at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, or you can tune in to Scott Gross who will have the call on KISU, or you can follow along live with LiveStats.
