POCATELLO − Idaho State men’s basketball coach Ryan Looney called it “the most coachable moment Gus Etchison has had since he’s been here.”

Bengal teammate Louis Bond called it “magical, uplifting… definitely a huge play.”

And Etchison’s description of his slam dunk right before halftime in ISU’s 73-69 win over Montana Thursday night?

“I just thought if I didn’t dunk this, it was going to get sent to the third row. So I was like, ‘I better dunk it.’ And I ended up doing that.”

Etchison, the Bengals backup point is generously listed at 5-feet-10-inches. But it didn’t show in his running vertical jump on the way to the rim to bring a rousing conclusion to the first half Thursday night. His hammer dunk gave ISU, which had trailed at one point in the first half by 10 points, a 39-37 lead going into intermission.

But more than that, it gave a Bengal team that was trying to end a nine-game losing streak, belief that it could take down a Montana team that has, quite honestly, owned ISU over the years.

“That gave us a different kind of spark when we went down to the locker room,” said Bond, a true freshman wing from Los Angeles who put the game on ice with some clutch free-throw shooting and great defense.

Looney had called a timeout with eight seconds left in the half and called the play for Etchison to attack the basket.

“I told him no matter what, you’ve gotta get downhill,” said Looney. “Put your head down and worst case, shoot two free throws. I didn’t imagine he was going to get that close to the rim.”

Etchison’s dunk was the signature play on a night when he scored an ISU career-high 29 points. He had registered a 43-point performance at his previous school, Division II Marian University. It also came on a night when Etchison asked Looney for the chance to match up with Money Williams, Montana’s outstanding point guard and the preseason Big Sky Player of the Year.

“I just said I want to guard Money Williams and play against him,” Etchison said of the text he sent to Looney before the game. “He’s preseason Player of the Year. Me personally, I think I’m one of the better players in this league as well, and I just wanted that challenge. I feel like I took that head on. He definitely scored a little bit on me, but I think I got him a couple of times there.”

Williams had a quiet first half, taking only two shots, scoring three points and handing out three assists. He took charge of the Montana offense in the second half, finishing with 19 points and six rebounds, but had only one assist down the stretch.

Etchison, meanwhile, was sweeping to the rim for picturesque layups, or nailing step-back jumpers for 3-pointers. He finished 10-of-16 from the field, 4-of-7 from long distance, and 5-of-7 from the foul line. He added five rebounds, two assists, two steals and four turnovers in his 27 minutes in relief of starting point guard Jamison Guerra.

He was part of a five-man unit that Looney recognized for its hard play in the first half, and he kept those five on the floor for most of the second half.

“We felt we had a group of five that were playing extremely hard and that changed our fate defensively,” said Looney. “We just made the decision to roll with that group as much as we possibly can, then sub for them just before the media timeouts.”

That group also included Bond, who had eight points on 6-of-6 from the foul line, five rebounds and three steals; reserve center Blake Daberkow, who had four points, six rebounds and a season-high four blocked shots; wing Lachlan Brewer, who finished with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three rebounds, two assists and a steal; and wing Cheikh Sow, who had six rebounds and recorded a team-high plus-21 in the plus-minus category.

Despite their inspired efforts, however, Montana came out of the locker room at halftime and drilled four straight 3-pointers to take an eight-point lead in the second half. ISU fought back to retake the lead, 64-63, on an Etchison layup at the 5:32 mark. ISU kept that lead the rest of the game, although Montana cut the margin to 71-69 with 2:22 to play.

Neither team scored again until Bond nailed two free throws to put ISU up 73-69 with 15 seconds left in the contest. Montana had a chance to cut the ISU lead to one point when guard Grant Kepley was fouled on a 3-point attempt with six seconds left, but the Grizzly guard who is shooting 72% from the foul line this season, missed all three foul shots.

ISU finished the night hitting 45% from the field, 33% from three and a tidy 14-of-17 (82%) from the foul line. Montana shot 46% from the floor, 43% from 3 and 73% from the foul line.

The Bengals outrebounded the Grizzlies, 33-29, including 10-5 on the offensive glass, and Montana had 14 turnovers to ISU’s 12.

In addition to Williams, Tyler Thompson and Brooklyn Hicks were in double figures for the Grizzlies with 10 points apiece.

When asked what was the mindset of the team after getting blown out by Idaho on Saturday and losing nine straight, Etchison was direct.

“We better win,” he said. “We have no choice, we have what, four or five games left? We better get hot now. We’d rather be hot at the end of the season than at the beginning. We believe we can win our next four games going into the tournament. If you can beat Montana, like coach said, you can beat any team in the conference. We’re excited and we’re ready to go.”

The win raised the Bengals’ record to 11-17 overall, and 4-11 in conference play, which leaves them in last place, a half-game behind Northern Arizona. Montana falls to 14-13 overall and 8-6 in the Big Sky, tied with Eastern Washington for third place in the conference.

Montana had won 13 of the last 16 meetings with ISU before Thursday night, but the Bengals have now won back-to-back games in Reed Gym.

On Saturday the Bengals host Montana State, who lost Thursday in overtime to Weber State, 82-79, at 4 p.m.