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Bengals Push Eastern’s Skid To Six Reeling Eagles Have No Answer For Isu’s Early Second-Half Run

From Staff And Wire Reports

Idaho State’s Rob Preston scored 16 points Thursday night to lead the Bengals to a 76-65 Big Sky Conference men’s basketball win over struggling Eastern Washington University.

ISU (10-9 overall, 6-5 in the Big Sky) led throughout most of the game in handing the Eagles (6-14, 2-8) their sixth consecutive setback.

The Bengals, who also got 15 points from Ron Harwell and 11 from Justin Sant, outscored Eastern 27-14 in the first 12 minutes of the second half and increased their modest 35-29 half-time advantage to 62-43 with 8:02 remaining.

The Eagles, who were paced offensively by reserve Eddie Turner, never got closer than 11 after that.

Turner finished with 12 points, while teammates Luke Egan and Karim Scott each added 11.

The Eagles outrebounded the Bengals 42-30 and shot a respectable 43.1 percent (25 of 58) from the field. But they turned the ball over 21 times and got only nine points from junior center Kevin Lewis - and eight of those came in the last 3 minutes of the game.

Eastern will try to snap its losing skid Saturday night at Sacramento State against a team it beat at home earlier in the year.

Idaho St. 76, E. Washington 65

Eastern Washington (6-14, 2-8) - Egan 2-8 6-6 11, Sims 4-6 0-0 8, K. Lewis 4-7 1-1 9, King 2-8 0-2 4, Scott 3-8 5-11 11, Turner 5-7 2-2 12, M. Lewis 3-10 0-0 6, Claus 0-0 0-0 0, Garcille 1-1 0-0 2, Berger 1-2 0-0 2, Moss-Kelley 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 25-58 14-24 65.

Idaho State (10-9, 6-5) - Harwell 4-8 7-8 15, Preston 5-9 5-6 16, Green 3-10 4-10 10, Culbreath 3-6 2-4 9, Sant 4-8 2-2 11, Sukut 1-1 2-2 5, Lei 1-3 3-3 5, Tarver 2-4 1-3 5. Totals 23-49 26-38 76.

Halftime-Idaho St. 35, E. Washington 29. 3-Point goals-E. Washington 1-10 (Egan 1-4, King 0-2, M. Lewis 0-4), ISU 4-12 (Sant 1-5, Culbreath 1-3, Preston 1-2, Sukut 1-1, Tarver 0-1). Fouled out- King. Rebounds-E. Washington (Scott 11), ISU (Green 6). Assists-E. Washington (King 5), ISU (Green, Culbreath 4). Total fouls-E. Washington 28, ISU 16. A-3,320.

, DataTimes