Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
Saturday night’s men’s basketball game at Holt Arena was supposed to be an easy win. The final score appears that it was, but the Idaho State Bengals left Bristol University, a United States Collegiate Athletics Association, a division that is lower than NAIA, in contention well into the second half.
The Bengals pulled away from the Bears, winning the game 80-61, but left fans in Holt Arena with a bitter taste in their mouths as the Bears trailed by six at the 9:05 mark of the second half.
“We didn’t play well, but we won,” senior Ethan Telfair said.
Up six with nine minutes to go, ISU went on a quick 6-0 run and found itself up 15 when Michael Crosby, who lead the Bears in scoring with 16 points, was ejected after an incident under the Bengal basket where multiple players were tangled up. The confusion left Geno Luzcando on the floor and Crosby with a technical and flagrant foul, ending his night. The series of events did the Bears in, as Bristol was outscored 30-17 in the final 9:32 of the ball game.
“I can prepare them to play, but goodness gracious I am not going to shoot one basket. I’m not going to defend one person,” head coach Bill Evans said. “If they don’t have enough pride to do that, then probably need to get another guy.”
Telfair lead the way for ISU with 18 points, but shot 4-13 from the field, 0-7 from three-point land and 10-14 from the free-throw line. Hayes Garrity had 16 off the bench and Brandon Boyd scored 15 in his first start of the season. The next closest Bengal in scoring was Geno Luzcando with seven.
“I think we are trying to find ourselves right now,” Garrity said. “We weren’t too bad offensively, I think we struggled more defensively.”
On a night where the Bengals shot 15 threes, most of which were open looks, and made 41.9 percent of shots taken, ISU knocked down four three-pointers and scored 38 of the 80 points inside the paint on an undersized Bristol team which brought only eight players, none of which were seniors, and one coach.
“I’m not looking for excuses,” Evans said. “We are much better than that team. They did a good job of hanging in there and you have to give them credit.”
Keshawn Liggins, a player Evans planned to redshirt this season, came off the bench, effectively forfeiting his redshirt. He punched 19 minutes and hauled in a team-high 7 rebounds, an area the Bengals have struggled in all season.
“I hope he steals a job,” Evans said. “That means we have a player at position then we have out there right now.”
ISU has struggled out of the gate. The Bengals have won three basketball games this season, however, only the Lamar game will count on ISU official record. Since Bristol was a USCAA team, tonight’s game will count to the Big Sky and the NCAA as an exhibition game, however, ISU will count it on its official record.
“This is a competitive sport we are in and a competitive world we are in,” Evans said. “You do a bad job and you lose your job.”
The Bengals have less than three weeks before Big Sky play begins on Dec. 29. In those three weeks, ISU will play Montana Tech next Friday, Boise State Dec. 18 and BYU Dec. 20.
