CHENEY, Wash. — The Idaho State men’s basketball team dropped its final game of the regular season at Eastern Washington, 77-64.

    The loss gives Idaho State the No. 5 seed in the Big Sky Tournament and the Bengals will play at Eastern Washington, the No. 4 seed on Saturday at 3 p.m.

    The Bengals are 7-9 in Big Sky play and 9-20 overall while Eastern Washington finished 8-8 in conference and 14-16.

    Chase Grabau led the Bengals with 15 points and nine rebounds while Kenny McGowen had 13 points. Andre Hatchett had eight rebounds for Idaho State.

    Cliff Colimon scored 28 points while Laron Griffin had 18 and 12 rebounds for the Eagles.

    The Bengals shot 41 percent from the floor while Eastern Washington shot 44 percent. Idaho State turned the ball over 17 times to Eastern Washington’s 11. The Eagles converted ISU’s turnovers into 25 points.

    ISU did out rebound Eastern Washington 36-33.

    The Bengals and the Eagles were close early as ISU took an early lead on a McGowen 3-pointer with 10:29 left in the period. The basket gave Idaho State a 16-13 lead. ISU led 18-15 but EWU rallied with a 10-4 run to retake the lead for good at 25-22 with 2:31 left in the first half.

    After a 3-pointer by Grabau tied the game at 25, Eastern went into halftime with a 33-29 lead.

    In the second half, Idaho State was held to six points in the first seven minutes and fell behind 50-35 with 12:45 to play in the game. The Bengals got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

    Saturday’s Big Sky conference tournament will mark the first time in three years that Idaho State has participated.