March 3, 2009

Big Sky Tournament Notes

Pocatello, ID --- Idaho State University hosts the University of Northern Colorado on Saturday night at 7:05 pm in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament, with the winner advancing to the semifinals in Ogden against either Portland State or host Weber State. The game will be broadcast on ISU's flagship station of ESPN Radio 930 AM KSEI in Pocatello, and 1230 AM KRXK in Rexburg, with Jerry Miller and Brad Bugger bringing all the action. The game is simulcast on www.isubengals.com for free through Stretch Internet and Cedar Hills Family Dentistry. Mitch Worthington will once again carry the court side blog and live chat, and the game will be available on www.bigskytv.org.

The Bengals will look to hold to the history that is on their side, as the Bengals are 5-0 in home conference tournament games, and ISU has been the #4 seed four times previously, and they have advanced to the semifinals all four times.

Idaho State is 12-18 on the year, and they are the #4 seed in the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Idaho State has won five of their last six, including a 71-49 win over Northern Arizona in the season finale at Reed Gym as Austin Kilpatrick led the way with 17 points and five three-pointers.

Amorrow Morgan is leading the team in scoring with a 13.7 scoring average, and Matt Stucki is second with a 12.1 scoring average, and they are the only Bengals in double-figures. Demetrius Monroe is averaging 5.8 rebounds per game, and he led the Big Sky much of the year, but Chron Tatum leads in Big Sky games at 5.0 per game. Stucki leads with 113 assists, and Morgan has 108. Stucki leads the team with 40 three-pointers on the season.

The Bengals are shooting .468 from the field (a conference only leading .509) and .344 from three-point range, hitting 117 three-pointers this year. ISU is 393-of-576 from the line, a .679 clip. ISU is barely getting outrebounded by their opponents on the season, by 0.7 boards per game.

Northern Colorado is 14-17 overall they qualified for their first conference tournament as the #5 seed, finishing 8-8 in the league after sweeping the Montanas at home. The Bears were led on Sunday against Northern Colorado by Jabril Banks with 14 points on senior night.

Banks leads the Bears with a 12.3 scoring average, Will Figures is averaging 12.0 and Devon Bietzel is at 11.9 per game. Banks also leads in rebounding at 5.6 per game. John Pena has 73 assissts, and Figures has 72. Beitzel leads UNC with 59 threes as UNC has hit 219 threes, second-most in the Big Sky.

For the season, Northern Colorado is shooting .462 from the field and .403 from the three-point line, and .723 from the line, and they are outrebounding their opponents by 1.9 rebounds per game.