Goings on for Valentine's Weekend

Well! This was certainly a fun weekend to be a Bengal! The men's team got a home sweep and improved their position in the Big Sky Conference to a 4th place tie with Northern Colorado and a 6-6 Conference record. God willing, if we win out we'll be 10-6 with a very possible home tournament game. The women also did very well, winning at Eastern Washington after dropping another heartbreaker to Portland State (more on that in the next post). Kudos to the softball team for shocking the hell out of Kent State, who went 46-12 last year and has won 3 straight MAC Championships as well as 3 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The final was 6-4 and left Kent State staring vacantly out in space; clearly the "WTF?!" expression was on their faces. That sums up the weekend and now, to the men's victories that are being covered in this post (don't worry, the others will get some atten-shee-uun)


Hundreds of Vikings are strewn about after a battle that turned into a rout, courtesy of the Bengalians and the Phil Meador Ford Dealership

In an incredible game that saw the Viking's take a 10 point halftime lead, ISU battled back to beat a stunned PSU team that is currently defending champions. The first half went by in an incredible 29 reality minutes, as only 5 fouls were called (yes, you read that right. Only 5 fouls...COMBINED! That's got to be some record) and Portland State was in Ken Bone form, nailing every damned 3 pointer in sight (giving many of us in the stands fits, and making General O'Brien's blood pressure rise to levels that were higher than any sphygmomanometer could possibly read). Portland State by the end of the half led 33-23 and many of the Bengal faithful had Up-For-Improvement style thoughts on their minds. Not to worry, however, for Matt Stucki, who broke the 1,000 career point mark that night, willed the Bengals to an incredible 2nd half. To understand how great this was, keep this in mind that we are a team that usually scores in the 40 point range...for the entire game. Not so this time, as we heaped on 55 second half points. Idaho State caught fire hotter than the Chicago Fire and torched Portland State with a healthy dose of offense that can only be described as (brace yourselves, sensitive eyes and ears)...in-fucking-credible. An 8-0 run that was followed by two momentum makin' dunks by Chron Tatum and Lucas Steijn and never looked back, outscoring the now-hapless Vikings 29-7 to start the half. The referees also came alive (or were switched out by Red Doug's agents...we'll never know) and called 34 fouls combined (and so many more free throws were issued than the lone one in the first half). The second half also saw Donnie Carson add an incredible, eye-popping ally-oop layup that involved him twisting in the air ala' Schwartz Bruder in G Gundam, doing a 1080 over Andre Murray, and calculating the tax return on every person in Michigan before putting the ball in the hoop (that he dramatically set on fire for special effect) that set off earthquakes reverberating as far as Kagoshima in Japan when it touched the ground (we of course never noticed the earthquakes, as Sir Donnie assured Bengal fans safety with this feat). Not to be outdone by Sir Donnie's magic show, PSU coach Ken Bone (who was lovingly quoted in my previous post) went loco on the referees and was promptly ejected from the game, much to the delight of the crowd and Sir Donnie, who applauded Kenny's effort to one-up him (that, of course, proved to be impossible). After the ejection, ISU led 52-40 and even with PSU chipping and hacking at the lead with more precision than the chiselers of the Sphinx, held on 60-59. Chron Tatum took it the distance for a lay-up and a free throw that would make it 63-59 and PSU found themselves in dire straits. The Vikings, in good fashion, had not only run out of mead but also 3 pointers as they had exhausted themselves of this offensive weapon in the 1st half. They missed 4 straight 3's on 4 straight possessions (they kept getting the offensive rebounds) and never capitalized. ISU drained 9 free throws and added some points to give General O'Brien his first win over PSU and ISU the 78-69 victory.


The Weekend Sweep: So easy, a monk can do it!

Valentine's Day saw a few awesome things. First off, Idaho State was fresh from the upset of Portland State and was aiming at achieving a home sweep, in order to drive out the barbarian invaders from the Northwestern regions. Second, the win places us in a 4th place tie with the Greelians. And finally...AMORROW MORGAN WTF!?! Yes, Amorrow Morgan did the coolest thing this season out of anybody I've seen and nailed a half-court shot at the half-time buzzer to earn full-on Awesomeness. That shot gave ISU a 39-30 halftime lead over the Eagles of Eastern Washington and never looked back as the Bengalians held off a furious rally to win, 75-70. Other than some wild moments, not much stands out about this game (which is sad, because it means less material for me to poke fun at). There were plenty of Giggly-Snerky moments in this game, however. To start, EWU has this guy on their team named Benny Valentine. If that's not an "LOL" moment, then I don't know what is. The real Name of the Game however, is Coach Earlywine, the main man of the Eagles. This isn't as funny as you think until you remember that a month and a half before, this guy awarded himself on the basis of having such a great name...with a DUI. Earlywine...DUI...hmmmm...*giggle-snerk*...Earlywine was certainly late in avoiding the valiant efforts of the local law enforcement and was really late in the rally that fell oh-so-short. EWU tried to make things interesting with several late bombs that brought it to a 74-70 ISU lead with 1.4 seconds left, but Chron Tatum responded by making a free throw (and missing the other one...he's so cute when he messes with our heads like that!) to ice this Valentine Love Concoction, 75-70.


Caracals are badass mofos.

In a totally unrelated post, caracals are really cool creatures. I sure wish I had one. They're cute. And totally badass looking at the same time.