Pocatello, Idaho - The Thunderbird men's basketball team was back on the road Thursday night in Pocatello, and fell to the Idaho State Bengals 87–68.

“Idaho State is a hot team right now in the Big Sky and we weren't able to slow them down tonight,” SUU head coach Nick Robinson said about the contest.

Despite the Thunderbirds hanging tight early, midway through the first half the Bengals had built up an 11 point lead.

The Bengals continued to build their lead as the half progressed, and a layup by Ethan Telfair with just four seconds left in the first half pushed it to the highest point it reached in the first period, 16.  

“We gave them the ball 10 times in the first half and they converted that into 17 points,” Robinson said.  

The majority of the scoring load in the first half was carried by a pair of Thunderbirds, as James McGee put in 14 points and Casey Oliverson scored 10 points.  

Through the second half the Thunderbirds couldn't make up much ground. They cut it to 16  a number of times, but when they did the Bengals had a response. ISU took the contest by a final 87–68.

McGee led the team in scoring, but only scored three points in the second half to finish with 17. Race Parsons had a big second half for the T-Birds, and finished with 13 points. Oliverson finished with 11.

Despite the loss, Robinson had a lot of positive things to say about his team.

“We did a nice job of executing versus the zone at times,” he said. “Race and James knocked down the open three's tonight and Casey and Daniel (Melifonwu) did a nice job of converting in the post.”

Telfair led all scorers with 19 points, and dished out nine assists in the process. Geno Luzcando was ISU's second highest scorer with 16 points, and the Bengals had three other players finish in double-digits scoring wise.  

The Thunderbirds will be back in action Saturday night in Ogden, as they will take on the Weber State Wildcats. Tip time is set for 7 p.m.

“We've got a quick turnaround and need to be ready to play versus one of the top teams in the league,” Robinson said.

The game can be heard over the airwaves on KSUB 590 and a live stream can be viewed online on WatchBigSky.com.