McGowen 3 lifts Bengals Past First-Place Weber State BY STEVE SCHAACK-ISU MEDIA RELATIONS
POCATELLO, Idaho – Kenny McGowen has a knack for coming through in the clutch for the Idaho State men’s basketball team. Two weeks ago the Bengal senior converted a four-point play with eight seconds left to lift Idaho State to a 68-67 win at Sacramento State. On Saturday, McGowen followed that with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Idaho State to a 64-62 victory over Big Sky leader Weber State. The Bengals are now 5-4 in conference play while Weber State dropped to 8-1.
Idaho State is now on a three-game winning streak for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
With 20 seconds left in regulation Weber State led 62-61 and Chase Grabau grabbed the rebound of a missed Damian Lillard 3-pointer. A few passes later, Grabau found McGowen in the corner where he nailed the game-winning bucket in front of a season-high crowd of 3,309.
McGowen led the Bengals in scoring, shooting 7-for-14 from the field for a game-high 19 points. His final game-clinching 3-pointer was his fourth of the night. Andre’ Hatchett added 12 points and six rebounds, followed by Chase Grabau who added 10 and eight rebounds. Abner Moreira pulled down 11 rebounds.
Idaho State shot 42 percent from the field and only turned the ball over 12 times while Weber State shot 45.8 percent and also only had 12 turnovers. Both teams had 31 rebounds. There were five ties and nine lead changes in the game. The biggest lead of the game was nine points for the Bengals at 47-38 with 12:18 to play while Weber State’s biggest lead was four points early in the first half.
Idaho State led 29-25 at halftime and for the first 14 minutes of the second half until the Wildcats Kyle Bullinger hit a 3-pointer to give WSU a 56-55 lead. Both teams traded leads until McGowen hit the game-winning bucket at the end.
Idaho State (7-14, 5-4) returns to the court on Thursday Feb. 2 at Montana State. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. The Bengals then play at Montana on Monday Feb. 6.
Kenny McGowen Quotes
“I felt it. As soon as I let it go and I heard the buzzer I knew it was happening. That is a big one to be here at the Division I level. Weber State has an awesome team and the best player in the league. That is big. For us to come out with this win is huge.”
On Guarding Lillard
“When you play against somebody like that you have to have respect for him but you can’t fear him. Tonight I wanted to step up my game. Last time I backed off and let him have too much. I wanted to make him work a little harder then he usually does.”
“It is great. We still have a lot of basketball left. This is a great shot but after tonight we have to get ready for Montana State. They came in here and stole one from us last time. That is where our minds have to go. This is a total team effort. I hit the game-winning shot but if it weren’t for Chase giving me that pass I wouldn’t have hit it.”
“You just have to play. We have the experience out there. He gave us a chance to make a play and that is what we did. That is what he has been preaching to us for us to go out and make plays.”
Deane Martin Quotes
“We said let’s not make too much of the game. It is a great opportunity for us. They are at the top of the league and running away with it. We said they could watch all the film they want on us and scout us all they want to scout us but they can’t take away us playing hard. They can’t take away our energy and they can’t take away our heart. I told them you have 40 minutes and you have a great opportunity. We came out and put a good plan together.”
On the last possession
“There are two-ways to do it. At first I yelled out to Mel (Melvin Morgan) I wanted a timeout. Once he got it in I knew we had to let him go now. We can’t stop the game. One you don’t want them to come out and set up their defense. They might set up a zone and we will draw up a man play. Then I was yelling to kick it into our drag. We knew if we could get it into Kenny’s hand or Mel’s hand we could get off a ball screen and make something happen. We got fortunate that Kenny got loose to get the shot at the end. You had to let players be players and let them make plays.”
On Guarding Lillard
“We did a good job with him. We knew we weren’t going to shut him out. We knew if we could keep going over ball screens and making him work that we would be good.”
On the first-half press
“In the first half our press was really good. We knew we were going to try and get in it early. We knew we had to get to the basket early on these guys.”
On the Bengals Defense
We knew if we valued possessions and got it to the rack that we could come down and guard them and get to the shooters. But the thing we had to do was be smart offensively to give our defense the chance.” Bengals Find Way to Win Again at Weber State
BY JAIME SCHROEDER-ISU MEDIA RELATIONS
OGDEN, Utah – It was a tale of two halves Saturday afternoon as Idaho State narrowly defeated Weber State (2-19, 0-8 BSC) at the Dee Events Center 54-52. Idaho State outscored the Wildcats 37-19 in the first half but when ISU struggled offensively in the second half, WSU worked itself back into the game and took the lead with 6:29 remaining.
ISU, however, would not be deterred and fought back to tie the game at 52-52 with 16 seconds left. Sophomore guard Lindsey Reed then capitalized on a WSU turnover and hit a game-winning layup with 11 seconds left to seal the victory for ISU.
“We ran a baseline out-of-bounds play,” ISU Head Coach Seton Sobolewski said. “It was one our out-of-bounds plays that lately Lindsey has been able to get open on off the roll when people switch. Lindsey set a screen and two people went off with the cutters which had Lindsey rolling to the basket and open for the shot. It was a good finish by Lindsey.”
The Bengals improve to 16-5 and remain undefeated in Big Sky action with an 8-0 record. The Bengals have now won nine straight games with today’s victory over Weber State.
Senior guard Chelsea Pickering led Idaho State with 12 points in the contest. Junior guard Kaela Oakes and Reed also scored in double digits with each chipping in 10. Sophomore forward Cydney Horton led the rebound effort with eight on the afternoon.
Overall, Idaho State shot 33.9 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from the arc and just 58.8 percent from the line. Weber State shot 37.8 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from the trey and 73.7 percent from the free throw line. ISU outrebounded WSU 38-34 and nabbed 15 offensive rebounds. ISU’s staple defense produced 17 Wildcat turnovers, including a key turnover in the final seconds of the game that helped turn possession back over to the Bengals leading to Reed’s game-winning layup. ISU also recorded eight steals and one block.
Idaho State took control of the game in the first half as ISU shot 46.4 percent from the field and hit four three-pointers. The Wildcats scored eight of their 19 first-half points from the free-throw line as the Wildcats hit just one three-point shot in the half and went 5-of-22 from the field in the half.
The second half was a completely different story as the stats were practically flip-flopped. The Wildcats opened with a 25-7 run to take the lead with 6:29 remaining in the game. WSU shot 52.2 percent from the field and went 3-for-3 from the arc in the half while ISU shot 22.6 percent from the field and 0-of-10 from three-point range. Once again, it was Idaho State’s defense that kept the Bengals in the game.
“You just have to stay confident, not get frantic and really lean on your defense,” Sobolewski said. “I think with eight minutes left in the half we had only made two field goals. That was my fear going in at half time. I was scared that we would do the same thing that we did at Northern Colorado in the second half and not perform as well offensively in the second half as we do in the first. At the same time, our defense was good enough to win the game and that’s what really makes me happy. When things don’t go right, we are still finding a way to win.”
Up next for the Bengals is a pivotal home stand against Montana and Montana State. ISU hosts Montana State Thursday, Feb. 2 and Montana Monday, Feb. 6. Both games will be held in Reed Gym and begin at 7 p.m. The Bengals swept Montana and Montana State on the road earlier this season in the first road sweep of the two schools since 2000-01 and just the second in program history.
