Utah State Eastern men’s basketball lost to the College of Southern Idaho 88-73 at home on Saturday night.
The loss gives the Eagles their second of the season against CSI. They previously lost on the road at CSI 114-77 on Jan. 20.
Both teams went back and forth in the first half, with each taking the lead multiple times and the Eagles taking a three-point lead at halftime.
“We played really good defense by holding them to only 39 points. In the first half we kept ourselves in the game with okay shooting,” USU Eastern Head Coach Vando Becheli said.
Five minutes into the second half, CSI started to separate themselves from USU Eastern and took a 6-point lead.
The rest of the second half saw CSI build a double-digit lead until two free throws made by USU Eastern’s Ognjnen Pantovic with 3:39 left cut the lead to 8 points.
CSI would go on to hold off the Eagles by scoring 13 points in the final three minutes of the game.
USU Eastern sophomore Rafael Monteiro finished the night with a team-high 26 points and team-high 9 rebounds.
“He played hard and fought hard, him scoring in the paint and going against their bigs was huge for us,” Becheli said.
Making his first start since being injured, sophomore guard Landon Swartz added 18 points and five rebounds.
On the season, USU Eastern was shooting over 42 percent as a team from behind the three-point line. In Saturday’s game the Eagles shot 5 of 30 and 16.7 percent from three-point territory.
“We should have shot better but for some reason our shots did not fall. We never have that type of performance,” Becheli said.
The Eagles will turn their attention to visiting Snow College this Thursday.
“Snow is pretty similar to our team, pushing the ball hard and being aggressive. We need to play well against their bigs and limit their second chance points,” said Becheli.
Snow defeated USU Eastern 76-65 on Jan. 18 in Ephraim.
Thursday’s game is part of the annual fan appreciation night and tips off at 7:30 p.m.
Admission to Thursday’s game is free along with food while supplies last.
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