Bengals hold off Eastern

Amorrow Morgan scored 19 points and had eight assists and seven rebounds as Idaho State defeated Eastern Washington 75-70 on Saturday at Pocatello, Idaho.

Donnie Carson added 18 points for the Bengals (9-17, 6-6 Big Sky), Lucas Steijn had 15 and Chron Tatum had 10.

Eastern Washington (11-15, 5-9) was led by Andy Genao with 21 points, Brandon Moore with 14, Bennie Valentine with 13 and Adris DeLeon with 10.

Trailing by double digits most of the second half, the Eagles scored eight straight points to pull within five with 5:50 left in the game. But EWU made just one of its next eight shots to kill the rally.

The Bengals made 10 of 18 free throws in the last 5:13 to hold off EWU, which lost for the first time in seven games in which it has scored at least 70 points.

“We scored 70 points, and that’s a scoring outburst for us,” Eastern head coach Kirk Earlywine said. “It should have been enough to win the game. We went a number of key possessions late in the game without a basket. At some point, you have to make a shot.”

It wasn’t a must-win game, but the loss put Eastern two games behind three teams tied for fourth, including ISU.

The top six teams in the regular season advance to the conference tourney that begins March 7.

Idaho State made 25 of 42 shots for 59 percent.

Idaho State had its largest lead of 13 points with 10 minutes remaining.

The closest Eastern Washington came after this was 74-70 with 5 seconds left.

ISU trailed by eight points 8 minutes into the game, but it rallied to take a 39-30 lead at half.

Idaho St. 75, EWU 70

 Eastern Washington (11-15, 5-9)—Genao 9-14 0-0 21, Brunell 1-3 0-0 2, Moore 3-7 8-9 14, Valentine 4-13 2-2 13, Gibson 0-2 0-0 0, Busch 0-3 0-0 0, DeLeon 3-9 2-2 10, Christensen 0-0 0-0 0, Stanojevic 2-3 1-3 6, Dunn 2-3 0-1 4. Totals 24-57 13-17 70.

Idaho State (9-17, 6-6)—Tatum 3-7 4-8 10, Steijn 5-6 5-6 15, Morgan 6-7 5-7 19, Baldwin 0-1 0-0 0, Stucki 3-7 1-2 8, Carson 6-8 4-6 18, Kilpatrick 0-4 0-0 0, Caspari 2-2 1-2 5, Busma 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-42 20-31 75.

Halftime—Idaho State 39, Eastern Washington 30. 3-Point Goals—Eastern Washington 9-22 (Genao 3-4, Valentine 3-8, DeLeon 2-5, Stanojevic 1-2, Busch 0-1, Gibson 0-1, Brunell 0-1), Idaho State 5-11 (Carson 2-2, Morgan 2-2, Stucki 1-2, Tatum 0-1, Kilpatrick 0-4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Eastern Washington 25 (Genao 8), Idaho State 31 (Morgan 7). Assists—Eastern Washington 15 (Gibson 4), Idaho State 14 (Morgan 8). Total Fouls—Eastern Washington 23, Idaho State 16. A—2,473.