Bakersfield at Idaho State postgame blog

CSU Bakersfield 61, Idaho State 57

Find the Journal’s game recap here.

And get the full box score here.

Star of the game: Tomas Sanchez. Bakersfield outscored ISU 5-0 in the last minute. That wasn’t good. But the Bengals wouldn’t have been in the game if not for their senior guard’s efforts.

Sanchez scored 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting and he drained 7 of 10 free throws. Sanchez’s defense (really the entire team’s) is what sparked Idaho State’s second-half 9-0 run that morphed a 42-39 deficit into a 48-42 lead with just under 10 minutes left.

In the end, of course, that’s a lead that never held. It leads us to the second star of the game.

Star of the game No. 2: Javonte Maynor. The Journal’s game recap recounts Maynor’s success against the Bengals this season. A guy averaging less than nine points a game has racked up 38 against ISU in two games.

Maynor’s 11 second-half points Saturday night helped the Roadrunners find a way to fend off a motivated Idaho State team.

Reason for concern: After holding Bakersfield to 8 of 23 from the field in the first half, the Runners connected on 56 percent of their shots in the second. Field-goal percentage defense continues to be an issue for Idaho State.

But the reason for concern emanating from Saturday night’s game (for me) concerns ISU’s offense. The Bengals have had some great games offensively, the most notable being the 93-90 overtime victory over San Francisco. 

Since that game, however, against Division I competition (albeit some of it very good) ISU has scored 66, 66, 65 and 57 points.

Idaho State head coach Bill Evans and his players have placed an emphasis on getting better defensively, but they had better figure out ways to improve on the other end, too.

“We’ve got to score more than 57 points to win games,” Evans said. “We’re 66, 66, 65, 57; you can’t win enough games. You’ve got to score more than 57 points in a Division I game to win.”