Eagles can’t stop Stucki

POCATELLO, Idaho – Sophomore guard Matt Stucki came off the bench to score a season-high 18 points Thursday night as Idaho State used a tenacious zone defense to beat Eastern Washington 78-65 in the Big Sky Conference.

David Schroeder scored 17 points for Idaho State, Akbar Abdul-Ahad had 16 and John Ofoegbu finished with 13.

Rodney Stuckey, the conference’s leading scorer, led Eastern Washington with 17 points.

Idaho State (8-8, 3-0) grabbed a 4-0 lead on two inside baskets by Ofoegbu, and the Bengals never trailed.

A 3-pointer by Abdul-Ahad with 9:18 left in the first half widened the Idaho State lead to 21-11. From there, the Bengals used a 13-4 run over the next 5 minutes to stretch the lead to 34-15.

EWU (8-9, 2-3 Big Sky) used an 8-2 run to cut Idaho State’s lead to 36-23 at the half.

The Eagles made another 8-0 run at the Bengals in the second half, cutting Idaho State’s lead to six points with just more than 10 minutes remaining. But that was as close as EWU would get as Idaho State built a 12-point lead with 3 minutes to go.

“We had momentum on our side and we had a couple of possessions that could cut into that lead even more,” said EWU coach Mike Burns. “But we couldn’t knock one down and we also had a turnover at that time.”

EWU tried to foul its way back into the game, but Idaho State hit 16 of 18 free throws down the stretch for a comfortable victory.

Idaho State held the Eagles, who came into the game second in the conference in scoring at 85.5 per game, to their lowest point total of the season.

Eastern travels to Portland State on Saturday night.