After earning a hard-fought victory over Southern Utah Saturday night, the Idaho State men’s basketball team returned to Holt Arena to take on Big Sky Conference co-leader Weber State.

    While the Bengals should have come into the game with momentum, instead they took to the floor against the Wildcats down two starters.

    Starting point guard Tomas Sanchez was held out of the game as precaution with a foot injury and two more games still to be played this week. Junior center Ayibakuro Preh also sat as his academic eligibility is still pending.

    Despite being shorthanded, the Bengals hung with the Wildcats for the opening 20 minutes. But a 14-2 Wildcat run to start the second half blew the game open as Weber State earned a 70-54 win Monday night.

    “They made shots, they drove the ball, we did not play defense like we should have, they got open looks and they made them,” ISU head coach Bill Evans said about the second half run. “They were 10-for-20 from the 3-point line and shot 56 percent from the floor. They scored 70 points against us. If you score 70 points against us we are going to have a hard time winning.”

    After going into the locker room trailing 28-26, ISU came out and tied the game up in the opening seconds of the second half on a layup from Neveij Walters. But Weber State would score the next nine points to start its run that turned the game Weber’s way.

    “I think we had to go deep into our bench and put Chris (Hansen) at the five and I think they just exposed that,” Andre Hatchett said. “We had to ask Chris and some other players to play positions they have never worked on and that they exposed our weakest points. When you have a guy who is 6-foot-5 guarding a guy who is 6-foot-11 it is hard to defend that, and I think we just ran out of juice.”

    Two free throws by Hatchett ended the run for a moment before a jumper from Kyle Tresnak and a 3-pointer from Scott Bamforth saw the Wildcat lead swell to 44-32.

    Back-to-back baskets by Sherrod Baldwin cut the deficit down to seven at 44-37 with 12:51 to go. ISU got no closer.

    The lack of a post players and the inability to make shots ended up costing Idaho State in the end.

    “I thought we played a great first half,” Hatchett said. “But take two starters out of any lineup, especially against a team like them, see what happens. I feel we played really good and we get our guys back we will be playing well.”

    ISU was outrebounded 33-20 in the game and shot just 20 percent from behind the arc. Evans had said last week that he felt the team would have a got shot to win if they could make six to eight threes a game. Monday the Bengals made just two.

    “I think we competed,” Evans said. “They are a good basketball team and are 6-0 for a reason. They got the ball into the high post on us and forced us into some mistakes. I am going to go back and look at the tape and we will go on from there.”

    While the end result of the game was not what the team had hoped for, there were many positives the Bengals can take.

    ISU had just eight turnovers while forcing 15 Wildcats miscues. Idaho State was able to convert them into 17 points.

    “When you take care of the ball that means they are not getting any easy layups,” Evans said. “When you start throwing the ball all over the place it allows the other guys easy points. So it is a big positive for us to be taking care of the ball as good as have been.”

    Hansen led the Bengals with 15 points. Baldwin and Hatchett added 10 apiece.

    Bamforth led the Wildcats with a game-high 17 points, while Davion Berry chipped in 16 for the Wildcats (11-3, 6-0 Big Sky).

    ISU (3-12, 2-4) hosts Sacramento State Thursday at 7 p.m. in Holt Arena.