Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
The men’s basketball team picked up its first win of the season Tuesday night at Holt Arena, defeating the Lamar Cardinals 77-60 as four Bengals finished with double-figure points.
Robert Jones III led the way with a game and career-high 18 points while Gary Chivichyan scored in 13, nine of which came byway of the three ball.
However, despite winning by 17 points, the Bengals were outrebounded 47-28, a common theme for a season that is still in its early stages.
“The biggest difference tonight was turnovers,” Jones III said. “We have to rebound better.”
Geno Luzcando and Brandon Boyd each added 12 while Ethan Telfair, who only played 29 minutes because of early foul trouble, was held to nine.
Telfair played nine minutes in the first half but played all 20 of the second and finished the game with those two early fouls.
After dropping its first six games of the regular season, including a ballgame in Cancun where the Bengals (1-6) turned the ball over 30 times, ISU picked up its first regular season victory, turned the ball over ten times and never trailed to Lamar (4-2), who beat Oregon State on the road earlier this season.
Lamar nabbed 17 offensive rebounds to ISU’s three as Colton Weisbrod grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds for the Cardinals, 11 more than the next closest Bengal.
“We have to rebound the ball better,” said head coach Bill Evans. “I know we can do that.”
No ISU player registered double-digit rebounds. The top five rebounders for ISU were Novak Topalovic, Luzcando, who each grabbed six, Jones III, and Telfair, who each grabbed four and Boyd who grabbed two.
“That’s not enough,” Evans said. “On a good rebounding teams, guards rebound the ball.”
Telfair made his first start in three games after sitting out the Cancun Challenge and the Texas Tech game.
Telfair did not travel with the team over the Thanksgiving holiday after an incident during a road game at Utah State where Telfair picked up a technical foul. Evans and ISU athletics had no comment on the matter at the time.
“People will look at the box score and wonder what’s wrong with Telfair,” Evans said. “Nothing is wrong, he had seven assists.”
Boyd started in Telfair’s absence, dropping 25 against Eastern Kentucky, 26 against New Jersey Institute of Technology and six at Texas Tech.
The redshirt freshmen punched 27 minutes off the bench in the game against the Cardinals.
“I think we were really good defensively and took really good care of the ball,” Evans said. “We had to play good to beat that team because they are a good team.”
The Bengals have come a long way from where they were last season. ISU was picked to finish last in the Big Sky last year and fell 82-70 to this same Lamar squad in Beaumont, Texas in December of last year.
“I still think we can play harder,” Jones III said. “There are some things we have to clean up but we are making progress.”
ISU will travel to Cal State Northridge on Saturday before playing at the Kohl Center in Madison where they will take on the 17th ranked Wisconsin Badgers.
