Pocatello, ID- The Bengals men's basketball team came out victorious against the University of Northern Colorado Bears Saturday night, 90-83 in overtime. After the loss UNC will drop to 5-9 on the year and begin conference play 0-2.
The Bengals and Bears both came out of the gates strong and this looked to be a battle from the very beginning. As each team exchanged buckets throughout the first half the Bengals found themselves trailing the Bears by 11 with just over a minute remaining. However, following a 9-0 run capped off by a Jay Nagle buzzer beater the Bengals went into the break only down two. The Bengals took the lead early in the second half and staved off the Bears' comeback as long as they could, but the Bears managed to tie the game up following two free-throws with just four seconds remaining. As the Bengals and Bears went into overtime the Bengals grabbed the lead early and never looked back as they finished overtime 19-of-21 from the free-throw line and 31-of-35 (88.6%) for the game.
Brock Mackenzie led the Bengals offense tonight as he finished with 23 points, four rebounds, and four steals on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, including two three-pointers, and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Austin Smellie and Brayden Parker both added 16 points and six rebounds each while Maleek Arington chipped in with 10 points, making all eight of his free-throw attempts, three assists, and two steals off the bench.
Idaho State shot 42.9 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from deep making five three-pointers on their 18 attempts. The Bengals finished with 12 assists, 35 rebounds, and eight steals. The Bengal defense held Northern Colorado to 40.6 percent shooting from the field and 26.1 percent from deep. The Bengals were able to pull ahead early in OT and made sure to finish the game strong making their free-throws down the stretch tonight going 27-29 from the charity stripe in the 2nd half and OT. This win boosts the Bengals record to 5-10 on the season and 2-0 in Big Sky play.
The Bengals will be back in action on Saturday, January 7th against the Weber State Wildcats at 6 p.m. in the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.
