POCATELLO, Idaho - The Idaho State men's basketball team capped off their three-game homestand by hosting the Northern Colorado Bears for the second of two regular season matchups between ISU and UNC. Northern Colorado took the first meeting in Greeley, winning by one point in overtime.
The Bengals would bet out to an early eight-point lead, 14-6, following a
Dylan Darling layup just five minutes in the ballgame. Idaho State and Northern Colorado would play each other closely the rest of the half, but with less than a second on the clock,
Dylan Darling would draw the and-1 foul and put the Bengals up five heading into the halftime break, 41-36.
In the second half the Bengals immediately grew their lead to eight points again, 46-38, however it would be short lived as ISU would struggle to find the bottom of the net, missing their next nine shot attempts in a row, and letting the Bears go on a 21-2 run. Idaho State would now find themselves trailing by nine, 48-57, with 13:43 to play. Idaho State managed to cut the UNC lead down to four, 59-63, following a
Jackson Greene tip in layup with 7:56 to play, however, the Bears would go on a 15-3 run over the next 3 minutes to put the game out of reach, now leading 78-62 with 4:10 left to play. Once the final horn sounded, Idaho State would end up losing to the Northern Colorado Bears by a final score of 72-86.
Idaho State will fall to 10-11 overall, and 5-5 in Big Sky play. Northern Colorado will move to 17-6 overall & 9-1 in Big Sky Conference play.
Jake O'Neil led the game in scoring, tying his career high with 21 points on 7-16 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, and two assists, tallying his 12
th double-double on the season (Top-10 in the nation).
Dylan Darling put up 20 points on 6-15 shooting from the floor, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals.
Isaiah Griffin would total six points on 2-6 shooting from beyond the arc, and
Connor Hollenbeck was held to five points on 1-3 shooting from the floor, while also adding two rebounds, and two assists. The final Bengal to start tonight was big man
Evan Otten. Otten put up eight rebounds, three blocks, and two points.
AJ Burgin came in off the bench and stayed scorching hot from deep, finishing with 12 points on 4-7 shooting from three-point range, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 16 minutes of play.
Jackson Greene would play 19 minutes off the bench for ISU, ending his night with four points, two rebounds, two blocks, and one steal.
Blake Daberkow would be the final Bengal to get into the scoring column in this one, totaling two points to go along with two assists, one rebounds, one block, and one steal in seven minutes played.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 37.5 percent from the field, and 38.9% from deep, finishing 7-18 from three-point land. Idaho State ended the game with 30 rebounds, 11 assists, and 5 steals.
Northern Colorado finished the game shooting 61.1 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point territory, going 10-20. The Bears would finish with 14 assists, 37 boards, and 4 steals.
NEXT UP
Next up for the Bengals, they will travel to Ogden, Utah on Saturday, Feb. 8
th for a date with the Weber State Wildcats. The Bengals will look to avenge their loss from earlier this season to the Wildcats, 69-77, in Reed Gym.
The Bengals and Wildcats are slated to tip off at 7 P.M. in Dee Events Center in Ogden, UT and will be streamed on ESPN+, you can listen along live with Scott Gross on KISU, or you can follow along 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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