POCATELLO — If Thursday's loss was Idaho State's gut check, it worked — at least for now.
The Bengals rebounded from Thursday's 74-58 home defeat to Sacramento State — ISU's fifth loss in a row — and outlasted Portland State in a 69-67 thriller Saturday at Holt Arena.
Nowhere to be found were the ill-advised 3-point attempts and whoopsidasies defense the Bengals made habit the past few weeks. ISU played with Portland State wire to wire Saturday and roused the 1,610 fans in attendance with clutch shots, defensive stops and rebounds — right down to the last one.
“We build habits in everything we do, and we've been trying to change our habits,” Bengals center Kelvin Jones said. “We haven't been winning, so one of our habits is just playing as hard as we can and leaving it all out there on the floor. I feel like we really did that today.”
The game's final seconds were hectic and included a potential game-winning shot from the Vikings.
In a 69-66 game with 5.3 seconds to play, PSU's Holland Woods stepped to the free-throw line. The 77.5 percent foul shooter made the first freebie and missed the second, but the rebound was kicked out to Deante Strickland at the 3-point arc.
Thursday against Weber State, Strickland made the go-ahead 3 to cap PSU's second-half comeback in a 76-75 win. A make of the same magnitude Saturday would have made for quite a trip home.
But Strickland's shot hit off the rim. ISU's Alonzo Walker out-jumped PSU's Jamie Orme for the rebound and clutched the ball with both hands as the game went final.
Walker also made a layup to stretch ISU's lead to 69-64 with 1:23 to play, and came up with a steal at the 1:02 mark. His win-sealing rebound finished off a 10-point, six-rebound effort in 26 minutes off the bench.
Gary Chivichyan scored a game-high 16 points off the bench, making 4 of 8 triples. Brandon Boyd and Balint Mocsan scored 14 points each as ISU's primary ball-handlers tasked with breaking PSU's persistent full-court pressure defense.
“I think we played good as a whole team,” Boyd said. “Gary came off the bench, made big, big shots. (Walker) came in, great energy. Six rebounds off the bench, that's really key.”
Jones, who entered the game ranked third in Division I with 3.89 fouls per game and was fresh off his ninth foul-out game of the season, committed three fouls Saturday while playing a season-high 32 minutes. He tallied seven points and 10 rebounds.
The 6-foot-11 rim protector admitted after the game he hates being scored on. He let his pride take a hit Saturday, playing as straight-up as possible on defense to avoid being whistled.
“I think he was the difference in the game,” Bengals coach Bill Evans said. “His ability to guard that rim, not let guys go in there and shoot layups, guard their big guy and score a couple points himself. … He had a big impact on the game.”
Saturday's game was tight throughout, featuring 11 ties and 17 lead changes. Portland State never led by more than three points, and ISU's game-high seven-point lead lasted 62 seconds before being trimmed.
Idaho State (8-12, 4-7 Big Sky Conference) navigated PSU's full-court pressure and settled into its half-court offense. The Bengals shot 50.9 percent from the floor and 36 percent from the arc while committing seven turnovers — 9.8 fewer than the per-game average of PSU's opponents this season.
ISU also took advantage of Portland State's giveaways, scoring 20 points off 10 turnovers.
“We broke the press and got easy shots,” Boyd said.
The Bengals led for 20:51 Saturday and held a 38-35 advantage at halftime. Chivichyan and Mocsan combined to make a trio of 3s over the final 3:01 of the first half to flip a frame that was mostly led by the Vikings (9-12, 4-6 Big Sky).
ISU drummed up runs of 7-0 and 5-0 in the second to create separation on the scoreboard — but never enough to scare the Vikings away. PSU shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from the arc.
Saturday's win is ISU's first against PSU since the 2015-16 season, and Evans' first against Vikings coach Barret Peery. Peery played for Evans at Southern Utah and was later an assistant coach under Evans at SUU. The win also snapped PSU's three-game winning streak.
UP NEXT
After Saturday's game, which Boyd called a “total 360” from Thursday's Sac State loss, ISU hits the road to play Northern Arizona on Feb. 7 and Southern Utah on Feb. 9.