BOISE, Idaho – The Idaho State men's basketball team played in the opening round of the Big Sky Men's Basketball Tournament Saturday night. Taking on the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks for the third time on the season. The Bengals and Lumberjacks split their season series, Idaho State winning in Flagstaff, and NAU winning in Pocatello. The Bengals come into the contest searching for their first tournament win since 2020, when they defeated NAU in the first round, before the rest of the tourney being canceled due to COVID.
The Bengals and Lumberjacks battled all first half. Idaho State would take the largest lead of the first half for either team, at six points, 17-11, following a Maleek Arington jump shot. Northern Arizona would respond by going on an 11-2 run, en route to the Jacks taking a 22-19 lead with 4:58 to play in the first. After some fancy footwork to free himself up, Brayden Parker would cut the NAU lead down to just two following a made layup, and the Bengals would trail by two heading into halftime, 26-28.
Idaho State would be able to knot the game up at 33 to open the second half, followed by a
Kiree Huie putback slam with 16:55 on the clock to give ISU the 35-33 lead, and the Bengals would not look back from there. Idaho State would grow their lead to as many as 14 points, and stave off any NAU comeback attempt with tough shot making and tenacious defense. The Bengals would go on to win 68-60. Ending their four-year tournament drought. After the win Idaho State will improve to 13-19 overall and 8-11 in conference play, Following the loss Northern Arizona will drop to 14-19 overall and 7-12 in Big Sky play.
Brayden Parker would lead the Bengals in scoring tonight, finishing this one with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block.
Maleek Arington would stuff the stat sheet, putting up 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor, three assists, three steals, and one rebound, while fellow starting guard,
Miguel Tomley, would dazzle on his way to 17 points on 3-of-7 shooting from three, five rebounds, two assists, and one steal. The final two Bengal starters would go to work on the glass tonight.
Kiree Huie would total seven points, 10 rebounds, one assist, and one steal, and
Isaiah Griffin would end the game with 10 boards. Off the bench for the Bengals,
AJ Burgin would record two points and three rebounds in 18 minutes, and
Trent Johnson would provide the Bengals with some clutch play on both ends of the floor, knocking down a huge three, some big free-throws, a vicious block, and an emphatic dunk to ice the game for Idaho State. Johnson would finish tying his career-high with seven points, two rebounds, one block, and one steal in 10 minutes of action.
After recording 18 points tonight
Brayden Parker is now top-10 All-Time in Scoring at Idaho State University. Parker passes Frank Swopes (1,304) as he now sits at 1,309 career points.
Following his 3 assists in the game,
Maleek Arington now sits at 151 assists on the season, moving him into 8
th place on the ISU Single-Season Assist Leaderboard, passing Mike Graefe (1985-86) and Erin Cowan (1992-93). Also, after recording 3 steals tonight, Arington moves into 2
nd place on the ISU Single-Season Steals list, passing Ethan Telfair (2015-16).
After making 3 three-pointers in tonight's contest,
Miguel Tomley, moves up the Idaho State All-Time and Single-Season 3PM record books. Tomley now sits at 78 made three's this season, moving him into 7
th place on the ISU Single-Season list, needing just four more to tie Tim Erickson (2000-01) for the most in a Single-Season in Bengal history. Tomley also now sits at 136 career 3PM, tying him with Jeff Gardner (2003-05) for 7
th on the ISU All-Time 3PM list.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 42.9 percent from the field, and 28.6 percent from three-point territory, going 6-of-21 from deep. Idaho State tallied 8 assists, 37 rebounds, and 8 steals.
Northern Arizona finished the game shooting 47.2 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point land (6-for-17). The Lumberjacks ended the game with 33 rebounds, 6 steals, and 7 assists.
The Bengals men's basketball unit will be advancing to the second round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament, and face off with the 2nd seed, Northern Colorado, on Sunday, March 10th at 8 pm. The winner of the game between ISU and NAU will be waiting for the winner between 3
rd seeded Montana and 6
th seeded Portland State.
