Brandon Davis
Reporter
The Bengals hosted the University of Idaho in a two-game series last Thursday and Saturday, winning big time in both games taking the first 69-43 and the second 64-58 in overtime. The two games were huge wins for the Bengals as the men improved their record to 11-7 overall and 7-3 in the conference.
Game one began quickly with the Bengal’s Austin Smellie hitting a 3 pointer in the opening moments of the game. With this the Bengals seized control and never looked back, their largest lead of the half being a sizable seventeen points and the halftime score being 38-23. The dominance of the Bengals continued after halftime with Tarik Cool hitting back-to-back three-pointers extending the lead even further, coupled with the 9-0 run put the Bengals up 55-39 with 9:20 remaining. The end of the half was more of the same, the Bengals were up by as much as 31 points after Daxton Carr hit a layup making the score 63-30. With that, there wasn’t really any hope of a comeback. The game ended 69-43. The story of the game was the ball control and defense of The Bengals. The game plan of pushing inside, getting the ball down low then passing out to the shooters, if needed, paid off big time as the Vandals just couldn’t keep up with the pace.
Cool led the impressive outing with 14 points, four rebounds and one steal. Following him were Smellie and Brayden Parker who each scored 12 points as the Bengals took the series lead with a spectacular performance.
Something must have changed on that Friday because when Saturday rolled around the Vandals were a completely different team. Gone was the team outmatched on the post, the team that was outscored by 31 points. The Vandals came to play with intensity, an intensity that was matched by the Bengals every step of the way. It was a brutal back and forth affair with there being eight lead changes and six ties.
The game started heated, with both teams missing a pair of jumpers and a vandal personal foul before Smellie hit a pair of three-pointers. The Vandals kept it close though with the Bengals entering halftime 28-27.
This didn’t continue going into the second half as the Vandals struck quickly taking the largest lead of the game going up 44-36. The Bengals mounted a comeback but were still down three points with only seconds left to play. With the game in his hands, sophomore Daxton Carr stepped up once again and sank a three-pointer tying the game 54-54 with 1.3 seconds remaining and sending it into overtime. When asked about the shot afterward Looney said, “I was thinking, just find a way to make it go in.”
From here the Bengals took a deep breath, cleared their memory and didn’t let up, they outscored the vandals 10-4 and once again stood victorious.
The difference in the game here was foul trouble by the Bengals and the pace control by the vandals. While Thursday’s game was a defensive and offensive effort with the Bengals in control, Saturdays was a much slower story with the vandals moving at their pace saving the shot for the last seconds of each possession. This is what kept them in the game, but when overtime came around they were forced to play faster, forced to play at the same speed as the Bengals. According to Looney, “I think we learned a lot, it was extremely ugly proud of our team for finding a way to win a game in the conference when we were nowhere close to our best.”
Cool led the Bengals once again scoring 22 points, hitting three 3-pointers, and five rebounds. Smellie put up an impressive 10 points and Parker nine along with five blocks.
With these wins, the Bengals continue their massive turn around from last year. Last season the Bengals ended at the bottom of the division with only eight wins. Something has changed in these Bengals, they’ve already nearly doubled their conference wins and are standing at third place in the Big Sky.
“Anyone who watched us a year ago, and watches us now can tell we’re a completely different team,” said Looney.
