Taylor Meeks
Sports Writer
The Idaho State University men’s basketball team fell, 74-58, to Sacramento State on Thursday night in Holt Arena. The home defeat marked its fifth consecutive loss.
ISU trailed most of the game and clawed its way back within eight in the second-half, but still came up short at the final buzzer. Sac State led by as much as 21 points.
“I don’t think we were ready to play that game,” junior guard Brandon Boyd said. “We came out flat, and they wanted it more than us from the jump. It was pretty evident out there.”
The Bengals shot below 50 percent from the field and made just six of 26 3-pointers. They were outrebounded, 37-23, and committed 15 turnovers.
Boyd led the offense with 17 points, while junior Jared Stutzman contributed 12 points. Junior Chier Maker led the team with nine rebounds.
At the end of the first half, the team trailed 42-22, shooting 32 percent from the field and just 18.2 percent from the arc. After the break, the Bengals surged forward to outscore the Hornets 36-32, but the burst of effort wasn’t enough to close the gap.
“They came in inspired, and they got after us,” head coach Bill Evans said. “We responded the second half, but you can’t just play good for one half. We have to be the aggressor in this thing, and we weren’t.”
Returning to play underneath the bright lights in front of a crowd of 1,610 fans, the Bengals snapped their losing streak with a thrilling 69-67 victory over Portland State Saturday night.
Saturday night’s match seemed to be a complete turnaround from Thursday, as the Bengals hit a mark of 50.9 percent from the field and 36 percent from the 3-point arc. The team also cut its turnover number to seven and forced the Vikings to 10.
The back-and-forth battle had 11 score ties and 17 lead changes. The largest lead of seven points was held by ISU in the second-half.
Redshirt-junior guard Gary Chivichyan scored a game-high 16 points off the bench. Junior guard Balint Moscant and Boyd each added 14 points to the team’s win.
“I think through the whole lineup everybody contributed,” Boyd said. “Even the bench contributed with some great energy. We wanted to make sure to keep our energy high during the whole game.”
A major difference maker between Thursday’s and Saturday’s matches was ISU’s 6-foot-11 junior center Kelvin Jones. After playing just 14 minutes against Sac State and fouling out, Jones stayed in against Portland for 32 minutes. Thursday was the ninth game this season in which Jones fouled out.
According to Evans, Jones was the difference in Saturday’s game, and he had a big impact. Jones contributed seven points, 10 rebounds and two assists.
“I feel we have been in a slump this whole time and I feel like we build habits in everything that we do,” said Jones. “We are trying to change our habits because we haven’t been winning. One of our habits is playing as hard as we can and leaving it all out there on the floor. I feel like we really did that today.”
The final seconds of the match were hectic as the Bengals fought to keep their small lead over the Vikings. After a missed free-throw attempt by Moscant, Portland had an opportunity to tie the game and force them into overtime.
With 5.3 seconds left in the game, Boyd fouled Portland’s Holland Woods to send him to the line for two shots. Sinking the first and missing the second, Portland got the rebound. Only trailing 69-67, the Vikings attempted a three-pointer, but the ball hit off the rim and the Bengals secured the rebound thus ending the game.
“We’ve had some adversity, and I feel like we responded well to that adversity,” Jones said. “We really wanted this win, and we came and fought for it. These games are definitely fun to walk away from with a win.”
