For the first time this season, Idaho State played two complete halves.

The Bengals put together their best defensive effort of the season on Tuesday, holding Lamar to 30.6 percent shooting while tallying nine blocks and eight steals. ISU’s 47.9 percent shooting clip was its second-highest this season, its 23 made free throws marked a season high and a 14-10 assist-to-turnover margin was the Bengals’ first game with more dimes than giveaways.

ISU earned a 77-60 win, snapping a six-game losing streak that featured two 30-plus-point blowouts and spelling relief for a team with Big Sky championship aspirations. But the Bengals (1-6) still posed a glaring weakness.

“The Achilles heel would be the inability to rebound the ball,” Bengals head coach Bill Evans said Friday by phone.

ISU was outrebounded 47-28 — a season-worst minus-19 margin. Lamar snatched 17 offensive rebounds, pushing Bengals opponents to an 85-44 advantage in that category for the season.

Idaho State is grabbing 42.5 percent of rebounds this season, ranking 337th out of 351 Division I teams. There hasn’t been a game ISU has won the rebounding battle, just a tie with Utah Valley, a minus-2 against Eastern Kentucky and five double-digit differences.

ISU’s Saturday opponent, Cal State Northridge (2-5), isn’t a particularly good rebounding team at minus-2.3 boards per game, but neither are most teams the Bengals have faced this season. Lamar was being outrebounded by 2.8 boards per game until thrashing the Bengals on the glass, resulting in a new average of plus-0.8.

“That’ll be a challenge,” Evans said. “To play well and rebound the basketball and not give up a bunch of second shots.”

The Matadors are coached by two-time NBA all-star Reggie Theus, who has his top five leading scorers from last season back, plus UConn transfer Rakim Lubin, Washington transfer Darin Johnson, South Carolina transfer Reggie Theus Jr. and Texas A&M transfer Dylan Johns at his disposal.

Aaron Parks, Kendall Smith, Tavrion Johnson and Darin Johnson all average over 12 points per game for the highest-scoring team in the Big West Conference (82.3 points per game). CSUN also ranks 348th in Division I with 96.0 points allowed per game but has faced offensive powerhouse UCLA (second in scoring in Division I), Pac-12 foe Stanford, Texas A&M of the SEC and New Mexico — each of which scored 95 points or more.

“They’re really good in transition,” Evans said. “We’ve go to get back, try to get them into half-court (offense) as much as we can.”