POCATELLO – The play was run for Daxton Carr, which may have been the biggest surprise of the day.

Down 3 with about 10 seconds left in regulation of what would be a 64-58 overtime win over rival Idaho (0-16, 0-13 Big Sky), there wasn’t much room for creativity. Idaho State (11-7, 7-3 Big Sky) needed a triple and, therefore, the Bengals needed their best play to hit a shot from beyond the arc.

The first option was not Emmitt Taylor III, who has knocked down over 60% of his 3-point tries this season. Nor was it Austin Smellie, who had already hit two deep attempts Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t even Tarik Cool, the Bengals’ leading scorer. It was for Daxton Carr, the Highland alum, who’s hit about a third of his 3-point attempts this season and hadn’t scored all day.

“We had Emmitt sitting in one corner. We had Austin sitting in the other corner,” Idaho State coach Ryan Looney said. “We had Tarik off a ball screen with Daxton, who can shoot it as well. The plan was, if Tarik gets doubled-teamed, throw it back to Daxton for 3.”

It played out like a simulation. Just as Looney drew up, Cool threw the ball into Carr at the top of the key. The 6-foot-7 forward tossed it to his point guard. Carr then set a screen on the right side of Cool’s defender and, when the defender followed Cool, Carr bounced out to the wing. Wide-open, Cool found him.

But even though Carr was open when Cool whipped the pass, Idaho’s Babacar Thiombane — a lengthy 6-7 wing — was closing fast. Instead of jumping vertically, Carr leaped backward with his right leg kicking forward. Worse, he double-clutched just before his release. The whole shot looked half acrobatic, half clunky.

“I thought it was (about to get blocked),”Carr said, “so I pulled it to the left side of my body to try and get a little more space.”

“I was thinking, ‘Just find a way to make it go in,’” Looney said.

Nothing but net.

Chad Carr was in St. George, Utah, when his son hit the biggest shot of Idaho State’s season, streaming the game on Pluto TV just after another one of his kids finished up a soccer game.

“I really didn’t think he wanted to shoot it,” Chad Carr said with a chuckle. “He didn’t play with much confidence all day, but if it’s time to take a shot, that’s the time to make it … It was good to see him take a shot and make it. Hopefully that’ll help him with his confidence going forward.”

Carr’s season has been turbulent from the jump. The Cal Poly transfer was forced to sit out last season after his waiver was denied, which gave Looney 12 months to hype up the 6-foot-7 local kid. He spoke about how much Carr’s size would help the Bengals, how they’re missing someone with his length who can connect on shots beyond the arc.

Out of the gate, Carr wasn’t starting but still managed to impact the game. His defense was impressive. He helped space the court. And he could come down with rebounds. But his scoring was hot and cold. In Idaho State’s first 10 games, Carr had outputs of 10 points, 13, 17 and 12. In the other half-dozen games combined, Carr tallied just 13 points.

Scoring isn’t what defines Carr. He knows that. And so does Looney, who put Carr into the starting lineup mid-season for his defense and all the ways he contributes without putting the ball in the net.

“He’s accepted to be the defensive stopper and to play that role and to take a shot when he needs to,” Chad Carr said. “I think for him, it hasn’t been too bad because he understands the game well enough and is willing to play a role to win.”

The tough part about that is it’s not easy to come out of the bullpen and fire strikes right away. In most games, Carr takes just a handful of shots.

That’s what made Carr’s clutch dagger on Saturday so impressive. He had taken one shot all day … and missed. Then, when his team made a shot the most, they called on him … and he delivered.

“The hard part is, Looney has a ton of confidence in him. Like, I think coach Looney has more confidence in (Daxton) than he has in himself right now,” Chad Carr said. “Because as a shooter, when the ball is going in the hole, it’s easy. When it’s not going in consistently, it’s a mind game.

“It’ll be good for him to get that shot in and know the coaches have that confidence in him.”

****

This was not a pretty win for the Bengals. Needing overtime to beat a winless foe isn’t often a source of optimism or confidence. Idaho State, though, looks at it differently.

“I’ve been coaching for a lot of years. The first team I ever had that won a conference title had to beat the last-place team in the league in a very similar fashion to today,” Looney said. “We’re late in the year, in February, I’m just proud of our team for getting another conference win and finding a way to do it.”

Cool, who finished with a game-high 22 points, knocked down a 3-pointer on the right wing to ice the game in overtime. But, as he mentioned afterward, “It’s thanks to Dax that we were even in that situation.”

Indeed, Saturday was Carr’s moment in the sun. Finally.

Cool has his share of big performances and clutch shots late in games. In an overtime win over Sacramento State, guard Robert Ford III was fouled on a last-second play and buried two free throws for the win. Back in early January, guard Austin Smellie’s late triples and career-high 24 points propelled ISU to a sweep over Northern Arizona.

On Saturday, Idaho State showed it also trusts Carr to win a game.

“I’m lucky enough Tarik trusted me to make it,” Carr said.

Added Cool: “We always have belief in each other. It goes all the way down from the first guy on our roster all the way to the bottom. We don’t really care who takes the shot. We have confidence they’re going to make it and we’ll live with the results.”

IDAHO STATE 64, IDAHO 58 (OT)

Idaho 27 27 4 – 58

Idaho State 28 26 10 – 64

Idaho – Quinnett 14, Blakney 12, Madden 10, Kilgore 8, Christmas 4, Christensen 4, Thiombane 3, Robinson 3.

Idaho State – Cool 22, Smellie 10, Parker 9, Porter 8, Taylor III 6, Ford III 4, Carr 3, Visentin 2.