Idaho State at Cal State Bakersfield post-game blog

Bakersfield 71, Idaho State 69

For ISU Sports Information's game recap, click here.

For the Bakersfield Californian's game recap (from Cal State's perspective), click here (there's a number of photos from the game, too. Oh, and one of the shots has a caption labeling Andre Hatchett as Ayibakuro Preh, always fun! -- Not that I should make fun of another newspaper's errors. The first time I wrote Jeffrey Solarin's name in the Idaho State Journal, his first name was Jeffery, not Jeffrey. Soooo, yeah.)

Star of the game: I should make something clear. I did not watch or listen to the game last Saturday as I was busy covering high school football championship games. I plan to listen to a radio broadcast of the game here and you can, too, if you missed it.

Back to star of the game ... Tomas Sanchez, Chris Hansen and Andre Hatchett all played well in the loss. They combined to score 50 of ISU's 69 points. And Hatchett had a second consecutive double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. But let's go with freshman Scotty Tyler, who posted eight points and five rebounds in 21 minutes of action off the bench (Tyler also had three of ISU's 18 turnovers).

Tyler's importance on the team became abundantly clear when both Andre Slavik and Ben Wilson were ruled ineligible for this season by the NCAA. And when Ajak Magot went down with a foot injury in the exhibition game against Dickinson State, Tyler was slotted into the role of first-big-guy-off-the-bench. 

Magot should be back around the time conference play starts in January, but Tyler's ability (or inability) to contribute quality minutes for the Bengals will go a long way to determining their success (or non-success) this season. He's a talented kid with 3-point range, good size (he's listed at 6-foot-7) and a heady sense for the game.

On another note, freshman Justin Smith recorded the first start of his career at Idaho State. Statistically at least, it was a rough one. Smith was 1-of-7 from the floor for two points. This kid is a stud with a bright, bright future at ISU. I bring this up only to point out that Jeffrey Solarin (the regular starter) did not make the trip to Bakersfield because he violated a team rule. 

Idaho State is off until Dec. 6 when the Bengals host Carroll College. Solarin's status by that time (or far sooner for that matter) should be fine.

Reason for concern: Bakersfield shot 50 percent from the floor (24-for-48) and the Roadrunners nailed 10 3-pointers. So far, Idaho State's three Division I opponents are hitting 48.6 percent of their shots from the floor and all three have made at least 10 3-pointers (ASU had 12 and USF drained 17). 

Keep the amount of 3-pointers allowed in perspective, though, because ISU plays zone virtually 100 percent of the time. A bigger worry is that the Bengals' field-goal percentage defense (throwing out the opener against Evergreen) ranks in the bottom third of the Big Sky Conference.

Granted, all three of those games were on the road. Arizona State is receiving votes in the latest Associated Press top 25, San Francisco rebounded from its defeat to Idaho State to knock off Montana in Missoula and Cal State Bakersfield is 4-1 overall with wins that include Sacramento State and Nevada. 

Reason for positivity: First, I should mention that I know "positivity" isn't a word. Moving on ... while Idaho State's opponents have been converting an alarming rate of their field-goal opportunities, the Bengals have been significantly better in one area this season (so far) — turnovers. In that article from Bakersfield, Calif., that I linked to at the top of this blog post (and I'll link again here because it's worth a read for some of the quotes from Cal State Bakersfield's players), senior guard Zach Lamb said, in regard to ISU's defense, "It was one of the weirdest defenses I've played against. We never knew what they would do. Technically it was a 2-3, but they were all over the court. ... We got frustrated."

That's a pretty revealing quote. Bakersfield finished with a season-high 21 turnovers and Idaho State scored 21 points off those giveaways. The sample size is small, but ISU leads the Big Sky Conference with 10.8 steals a game. 

During the preseason, head coach Bill Evans and the Bengals spent a considerable amount of time working on a zone trap in the corner. It's something Evans said his teams at Southern Utah did all the time, but Idaho State stayed away from it a year ago. 

In general, the Bengals have cranked up the defensive intensity and that's created a bit of havoc. It's (likely) leading to the higher field-goal percentage on defense but it's also leading to more opportunities in the open court.

Idaho State vs Bakersfield
11/23/13 7 p.m. at Bakersfield, CA (Icardo Center)
At Bakersfield, CA (Icardo Center)

BAKERSFIELD 71, IDAHO STATE 69

IDAHO STATE (2-2)
HANSEN, Chris 5-13 6-6 19; HATCHETT, Andre 7-14 3-4 17; SANCHEZ, Tomas 5-14
2-2 14; TYLER, Scotty 3-5 2-2 8; HALL, Evann 2-6 2-3 6; PREH, Ayibakuro 0-0
3-4 3; SMITH, Justin 1-7 0-0 2; SOLARIN, Jeffrey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-59
18-21 69.

BAKERSFIELD (4-1)
Maynor, Javonte 7-11 0-0 21; Barnes, Brandon 5-11 3-3 13; Lamb, Zach 4-7 0-0
10; Ahmed, Abdul 3-5 1-2 7; Hall, Corey 2-2 2-3 6; Grayson, Issiah 2-5 1-2
6; Corbin, Tyrell 0-1 3-4 3; Kinney, Erik 0-0 3-4 3; Johnson, Stefon 1-5 0-2
2; Smith, Zech 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-48 13-20 71.

Idaho State...................   36   33  -   69
Bakersfield...................   43   28  -   71

3-point goals--Idaho State 5-15 (HANSEN, Chris 3-5; SANCHEZ, Tomas 2-5;
TYLER, Scotty 0-1; HALL, Evann 0-1; SMITH, Justin 0-2; HATCHETT, Andre 0-1),
Bakersfield 10-21 (Maynor, Javonte 7-10; Lamb, Zach 2-4; Grayson, Issiah
1-3; Johnson, Stefon 0-1; Barnes, Brandon 0-3). Fouled out--Idaho
State-None, Bakersfield-None. Rebounds--Idaho State 38 (HATCHETT, Andre 11),
Bakersfield 29 (Johnson, Stefon 8). Assists--Idaho State 13 (SANCHEZ, Tomas
5), Bakersfield 17 (Johnson, Stefon 5; Grayson, Issiah 5). Total
fouls--Idaho State 18, Bakersfield 20. Technical fouls--Idaho State-None,
Bakersfield-None. A-1334
Flagrant Foul 1 called against Tomas Sanchez of ISU at 9:51 of second half.