Taylor Meeks
Sports Editor
The Idaho State University men’s basketball team dropped its two home matches last weekend against both Montana schools inside Reed Gymnasium.
In its first match Thursday evening, the Bengals battled against the Montana Grizzlies, but suffered a heartbreaking loss, 77-74. Montana is at the top of the Big Sky Conference having an 11-9 overall record and being 7-2 in conference play.
“I’m proud of how hard our team played,” said head coach Ryan Looney. “It’s getting to the point where it feels like a gut punch at the end of most nights. We’ve lost a lot of close ones now so far this year.”
Idaho State battled point-for-point with Montana in the first half. However, after hitting a cold streak of repeated missed shots, the Bengals trailed by 14 points headed into halftime.
The second half started with a seemingly new ISU squad as the Bengals dominated every aspect of the game to tie the score at 54-54 with just over 11 minutes to play. Montana quickly stole back the lead, but Idaho State managed to keep the margin within four points until just under 10 seconds left.
With the score in favor of Montana, 75-73, Tarik Cool was sent to the line for two free throws and the opportunity to tie the game up. He effortlessly sunk his first one but missed the second. ISU’s Chidi Udengwu fought his way through several bodies to snatch the rebound and go up for the winning put-back. However, he airballed the short baseline shot, and Montana ran away with the win.
“Losing sucks, man. It sucks bad,” said Jared Stutzman. “It’s our job as a team to stick together and not let that get to us and realize we’ve got more to come, but it definitely doesn’t take the sting away in the moment.”
Idaho State returned to Reed Gym on Saturday night to play Montana State for its second game of the week. It proved to be yet another exhilarating back-and-forth battle between the two teams with 12 lead changes and 10 ties.
Unlike Thursday night’s game against the Grizzlies, the first half was a grueling battle between the two teams for the lead as the score was tied, 34-34, headed into halftime. The Bengals shot 35 percent from the field and hit 38 percent from the three-point line in the first half.
The second half was much of the same until just under 10 minutes left in the game. After multiple back-to-back second chances in the paint and made free throws to go along with it, the Bobcats took over the lead, 58-51. Idaho State couldn’t close out the seven-point margin, which grew to as much as 14 at one point, and gave Montana State the win, 75-64.
“I think we just made some crucial mistakes, honestly,” said Austin Smellie. “I think we slipped up, we gave them some offensive rebounds and that’s kind of all of our fault. It stings because we were right there.”
Smellie led the Bengals in scoring with 12 points. Udengwu was close behind with 11 points and seven rebounds. Chier Maker had a team-best eight rebounds.
Overall, Idaho State shot 36 percent from the field, 33 percent from beyond the arc and made 13 of 18 free throws. Montana State, on the other hand, was 49 percent on the night and secured 18 of 23 free throws.
The Bengals were outrebounded, 38-32, and committed 15 turnovers that resulted in 17 of the Bobcats points.
“I thought we were doing okay until about the seven-minute mark of the second half,” Looney said. “The score was 51-51 and we gave up offensive rebound, put-back and foul, came down again, gave up offensive rebound, put-back. Third time in a row, gave up offensive rebound, put-back and foul. We went from 51-51 to 51-58 in a matter of no time, and it basically just stayed there the rest of the game.”
Montana State managed to score 16 points off of those second chances allotted by Idaho State and outscored the Bengals, 24-13, in the last nine minutes of the game. The loss is a season-worst fourth in a row for ISU.
Idaho State is now 6-12 overall and 3-6 in Big Sky play. The record ranks them tenth in the conference.
The Bengals hit the road this week for two away matches against University of Northern Colorado for the first time this season on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. and against Southern Utah University for the second time this season on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m.
“I feel like we will be alright, we just have to stay together,” Udengwu said. “Even after a rough stretch of games, I feel like us just folding over will negate all the hard work we’ve done, so that’s exactly what we are not going to do. The next game is coming, so we have to get ready for that one.”
