GREELEY, Colorado - The Bengals men's basketball team played their second game of their Big Sky Conference slate on Saturday evening. Traveling to Greeley, Colorado to take on one of the Big Sky's best teams out of non-conference play, the University of Northern Colorado Bears. The Bears took the season series over the Bengals last year, 2-1, and ISU has not won in Greeley since the 2020-21 season.
From the get-go this game was very reminiscent of last year's 2OT thriller in Greeley when the Bears would come out on top, 91-86.
The Bengals and Bears would battle evenly all first half, Northern Colorado would gain the biggest lead of the first half at seven points, 18-11 with 11:52 to play in the first half. Idaho State would gain some momentum back before halftime, as they would trail by just two heading into the locker room, 36-38.
In the second half both teams would play well. Idaho State would extend their lead to as many as seven points, 63-56, with 9:14 to play in the game. UNC would respond by going on a 6-0 run to cut the Bengal lead to just one point, 63-62. With 4:29 to play the Bengals would gain a six-point lead, 70-64, but once again the Bears would respond, cutting the lead back down to just two, 70-68 with 3:32 to play. Idaho State regained a four-point lead with 2:15 to play following an
Evan Otten alley-oop dunk from
Jake O'Neil, but the Bears would cut the lead down to two with 1:33 left in the game. The Bears would gain a one-point advantage, 77-76, over ISU with 46 seconds, but with 17 ticks on the clock
Jake O'Neil would lay home a driving layup, giving Idaho State the lead, 78-77. On the ensuing Bears possession ISU would foul, and after making one of two free-throws the Bengals and Bears would head into overtime tied up at 78.
In overtime Idaho State would open with a 10-4 run, going up 88-82 after a
Dylan Darling step-back three-pointer. As they had done all game, Northern Colorado responded to Idaho State, going on their own 9-2 run to give UNC a 91-90 lead with just 47 seconds left in OT.
Evan Otten would get the reverse layup to drop with 27 seconds remaining to regain the lead for ISU, 92-91, but with 13 seconds remaining UNC got a driving layup to fall, giving the lead back to the Bears, 93-92. With just 10 seconds left the Bengals brought the ball up, and
Dylan Darling would throw up a heave from just inside halfcourt, and miraculously get it to fall! However, after video review the ball left Darling's hands a fraction of a second too late, and the officials would waive off Darling's would-be game winning shot. Giving Northern Colorado the 93-92 win over Idaho State.
Idaho State will drop to 6-7 overall and 1-1 to begin Big Sky play. Northern Colorado will be move to 10-5 overall & 2-0 to start conference play.
"I am proud of our effort tonight", says Head Coach
Ryan Looney. "I thought we were pretty good offensively, we just could not get enough stops on defense to win the game."
Dylan Darling led the Bengals in scoring for the second game in a row since returning to the starting lineup after missing Idaho State's final two non-conference games in December. Darling ended his day with 22 points on 7-19 shooting from the floor, seven assists, two rebounds, and one steal.
Jake O'Neil would tally 21 points on an efficient 9-12 shooting from the field and 2-2 from three-point land, eight rebounds, a season high four steals, and three assists.
Isaiah Griffin would finish with his first career 20 points game, scoring 20 points on 9-16 shooting from the floor, four rebounds, one block, and one steal. The final two starters were
Connor Hollenbeck and
Evan Otten. Hollenbeck putting up eight points on 3-5 shooting from the field and 2-3 from beyond the arc, two rebounds, one block, and one steal, and Otten would total seven points on 2-2 shooting, six rebounds, and two blocks in just 22 minutes of action after getting into foul trouble in the first half.
Off the bench,
Blake Daberkow and
AJ Burgin would play meaningful minutes for Idaho State. Daberkow continuing his good start to conference play as he would total four points on 2-3 shooting from the floor and two rebounds in a season-high 20 minutes of play, and Burgin would come in and stuff the stat sheet, putting up six points on 2-4 shooting and 2-3 from three-point land, one rebounds, one assist, and one steal all in 18 minutes.
Jackson Greene would see eight minutes of playing time, tallying four points on a perfect 1-1 shooting, two rebounds, and one assist.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 54.7 percent from the field, and 44 percent from deep finishing 11-25 from three-point range. Idaho State ended the game with 32 rebounds, 12 assists, and 8 steals.
Northern Colorado finished the game shooting 62.1 percent from the field and 25 percent from three-point territory, going 4-16. The Bears would finish with 22 assists, 27 boards, and 7 steals.
Next up for Idaho State will be their rivals just down the I-15, Weber State. The Bengals will host the Wildcats for their first of two conference games on Saturday, January 11
th.
Tip-off between the Bengals and Wildcats is scheduled for 6:00 P.M. in Reed Gym. This game will be streamed on ESPN+, you can listen along live with Scott Gross on KISU, or you can follow along with LiveStats.
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