Idaho State Hangs on for Overtime Win in Bozeman

Thursday, February 2

Bozeman, MT

7:00 PM

Montana State University

IDAHO STATE

Xavier Blount led MSU with 24 points

Photo by: Kelly Gorham

2/2/2012 10:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball

McGowen's 30 points paces Bengals

By: Bill Lamberty

Kenny McGowen's contested layup with 10 seconds remaining pushed Idaho State into the lead and Tre Johnson missed a tip-in attempt at the buzzer as the Bengals beat Montana State in a back-and-forth affair in Bozeman on Thursday.

McGowen's game-winner capped a career-high30-point effort. The senior guard launched a fast start with nine points in the game's first 11 minutes, then helped close the game with a team-high five points in overtime. The game featured 11 ties and 11 lead changes, including three lead changes in the final two minutes.

“It was right there,” Huse said of Johnson's tip attempt, “it would have been nice if it would have gone in, obviously, but we had plenty of chances to win that game, as did they. This game was lost in the first half.”

Idaho State nearly ran away with it in the first half. Leading 18-13, the Bengals ran off a 19-4 run to grab a 20-point lead. Undaunted, the Bobcats chipped away, cutting the lead to 41-30 at the intermission. Then, MSU scored the first 10 points after the intermission to pull within one, 41-40. The Bobcats drew even at 13:53, the Bengals went up by as many as five before MSU tied it again, and from that point until the end of regulation the largest difference was five.

“It was disappointing, the stretch we had in there,” Huse said. “We didn't unite and keep it reasonable. We fought back to take a lead and had the opportunities to take control. But coming back from 20 is a lot. Credit our guys for making a run at them, and credit to Idaho State for making big shots. I thought we made some big shots.”

Each team had a chance to win late in regulation. Christian Moon hit a three-pointer with 2:11 to play to give the Bobcats a 75-70 lead, and a stop gave MSU possession. But an Xavier Blount turnover led to a pair of ISU free throws, then a missed three-pointer by Singleton and a dunk by Abner Moreira trimmed the lead to one. After another Singleton miss McGowen drained a three-pointer and the Bengals led by two. But Tre Johnson converted a dunk with 3.8 seconds to play to send the game to overtime.

The Bobcats jumped out to a four-point lead in the first minute-and-a-half of overtime, and again had possession. But Blount missed a free throw, and Kenny McGowen drained a three to get to within one. A pair of MSU turnovers in a one-minute stretch allowed ISU to grab a two-point lead. After Jourdain Allou hit one of two free throws with 24 seconds to give the Cats an 86-85 lead McGowen's layup gave the Bengals their winning margin.

“Obviously we had some critical turnovers in overtime that hurt when we had a lead,” Huse said.

Xavier Blount scored 24 points for the Bobcats, while Christian Moon added 22. Jourdain Allou chipped in with the game of his career, scoring 13 points and snagging 12 rebounds for his first career double-double.

“Allou had a great game,” Huse said. “He played with great energy, hustled, 12 boards. We could see him coming on in this last road swing. He got after it and played a great game.”

The Bobcats fall to 11-10 overall, 6-4 in Big Sky play with the loss. While Montana got this week off, the Bobcats don't have long to linger on the loss before Saturday's Cat-Griz encounter. Tipoff is 7:05 pm in Bozeman.