Boise, ID- The Bengals men's basketball team is taking part in the Big Sky Conference basketball tournament this week in Boise, Idaho as they prepared for their second-round game against the University of Montana Grizzlies. The Bengals and Griz battled in a tight-knit first half as neither team led the other by more than six points, the end of the first-half both teams knotted up at 34 apiece. Brock Mackenzie led the Bengals to start, putting up 16 first-half points going a perfect 6-of-6 from the field. In the second half the Bengals came out sluggish, giving up a 10-2 run early on in the half. Idaho State stayed within striking distance of Montana until six minutes remaining where Montana stretched their lead to double digits and proved to be too much to handle for the Bengals, wining 83-74. After the loss, the Bengals finish their season 11-21 and 8-11 in conference play. The University Montana Grizzlies will move to 17-13 on the season and 11-7 in conference play, moving on to face Northern Arizona University in the semi-finals of the Big Sky tournament on Tuesday, March 7th.
Brock Mackenzie was the Bengals leading scorer on the evening, finishing with a season-high 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from three-point land, one rebound, and two assists. Austin Smellie tallied 10 points, five rebounds, one assist, and one steal while Kolby Lee put up 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, three rebounds, and two assists. Maleek Arington had a good game off the bench for the Bengals finishing with seven points, three steals, and one assist.
The Bengals finished the game shooting 51.9 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from deep making 8-of-19 shots from three-point territory. The Bengals tallied 9 assists, 20 rebounds, and 5 steals. The University of Montana finished the game shooting 57.4 percent from the field and 30 percent from distance.
