Devon Burningham

Sports Writer

The Idaho State University men’s basketball team competed against Southern Utah University last Thursday night, Jan. 8, in Reed Gymnasium but unfortunately came up short, 71-55, in its fourth Big Sky Conference (BSC) game of the season.

ISU came into the game looking to bounce back from a 68-49 loss to Sacramento State on Jan. 4, while the visiting SUU team was hungry to chalk up its third conference win.

The loss put the Bengals 2-2 in BSC play.

“It’s tough, no one likes losing,” said head coach Ryan Looney. “We wish we could win every time. We just ran into a team tonight that, right now, is at a different stage in their program than we’re at.”

Within the first minute of the game, SUU’s Cameron Oluyitan scored two quick buckets giving the Thunderbirds a 4-0 lead. ISU didn’t falter and answered back with two three-pointers to make the game 9-6 in favor of the T-Birds with 15:00 minutes left in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Bengals, SUU went on a 12-2 run for the next five minutes giving them a commanding 22-8 lead. However, after a quick timeout, ISU went on a scoring barrage of 21 points while only allowing its opponent 11 points for the last 10 minutes of the first half, cutting SUU’s lead to 33-29.

“I think the biggest adjustment we made, getting down fourteen early in the game, was playing different people,” Looney said. “I don’t know that we necessarily changed a whole lot in regards to what our plan was for the game. We just simply went with guys who were playing basketball harder.”

The Bengals started the second half with more consistent shooting, coming within four points of the Thunderbirds. After several blocked shots and made baskets, SUU closed out hope for ISU, gaining a 16 point lead with less than five minutes on the clock. Idaho State battled ferociously in the remaining minutes of the game but was handed its second loss in conference play at the buzzer.

Maker led the team in scoring with 15 points on six of 13 from the field and two of six from the three-point line. He also contributed five rebounds.

Lyle Sutton played a career-best 19 minutes and was the next highest scorer at 10 points. Jared Stutzman tallied eight points while securing six rebounds.

“If there is a positive in regards to tonight’s game, we played the leading rebounding team in the conference, and we were plus seven on the glass” Looney said. “We had fifteen offensive rebounds, so if we could’ve duplicated that in every other area on the stats sheet, the game might have been a little bit different.”

Idaho State will host Weber State University (5-10 overall, 1-3 BSC) Thursday, Jan. 16, inside Reed Gym at 7 p.m. before hitting the road to face Portland State University (7-9 overall, 1-3 BSC) on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8:05 p.m. (MST).

“We’ll definitely have a plan,” Looney said. “There will be some things that will be definitely different than tonight. We just know, regardless of what those are, we are gonna have to be better.” would his own family. They make it easy for him to get out to the games and cheer for them no matter where it may be.

“People don’t realize that we have genuine talent here at ISU,” said Cunningham. “Get out to the games and put on your orange face paint. Support our
athletes and you’ll be surprised at how much fun you’re gonna have.”