Felix Caspari tilted his face toward the ceiling and shielded his eyes in embarrassment as Matt Stucki revealed the moniker Caspari's Idaho State teammates have invented for him: "Instant offense."

"He comes in and gets buckets," Stucki said amidst fits of laughter from Caspari, "so that's kind of been his nickname from the team."

Caspari responded with a sheepish, "Thanks, Matt," but he really didn't have to feel ashamed of the tag.

The 6-foot-8 junior post scored eight points in 14 productive minutes during Idaho State's 67-60 win over Northern Colorado on Saturday at Holt Arena. In each of the Bengals' previous two games, Caspari played nine minutes and scored eight and seven points, respectively.

Just as important Saturday, he anchored Idaho State's center position for a critical stretch in the second half after fellow posts Lucas Steijn and Chron Tatum fell victim to foul trouble and a banged-up right knee, respectively.

"I'm not worried about how many minutes I play," Caspari said. "When I come in, I just try to play hard. If it's five minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, I don't care. I don't get affected. I just watch those guys play, and when somebody gets tired, I know it's my job to get in and try to pick the energy up."

Idaho State needed his effort more than usual because Steijn and Tatum played a combined 12 minutes after halftime. Northern Colorado's shifty four-guard lineup limited Steijn's effectiveness by drawing his fourth foul with 10:16 to go in the game. Tatum, meanwhile, smacked his right kneecap against a Bears defender late in the first half, a collision that limited his mobility.

Enter Caspari as Idaho State's big man. During a five-minute span midway through the second half, he scored six of the Bengals' eight points on an assortment of post moves.

The most emphatic of those came at the 6:43 mark when he collected an Amorrow Morgan feed and rammed a two-handed dunk over Northern Colorado post Jabril Banks. The slam, which also caused Banks to dislocate a finger on his left hand while attempting a block, gave Idaho State the lead for good at 51-50.

Caspari credited the basket, along with his recent offensive renaissance, to his teammates.

"They've just given me good looks," Caspari said. "I've just had to finish layups or dunk it."

Caspari also played a pivotal role in holding Banks, a first-team All-Big Sky selection, to five points on 2-for-7 shooting. Banks entered the game as Northern Colorado's top scorer at 12.3 points per game.

Not a bad defensive effort from a player who had spent all season manning a power forward role for Idaho State.

"Jabril didn't have his best game, but I think a lot of that had to do with Idaho State eliminating his touches," Northern Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "My hat goes off to those guys. When he did catch it, he had guys surrounding him."

Things went so well for Caspari that he even earned praise from Idaho State coach Joe O'Brien for the weakest part of his game - free-throw shooting. Caspari, who was shooting 40.7 percent entering the game, hit four of his six attempts, including two straight right after his monster dunk over Banks.

"I'm pretty proud of Felix," O'Brien said, drawing more guffaws from the big man. "A lot of nights, he tries to bend the rim at the free-throw line. Tonight, he was hitting the net."