BOZEMAN, Mont. - The University of Idaho men's basketball team continued to struggle Saturday night as it dropped a non-conference game at Montana State, 79-69.  Idaho falls to 4-19 on the season.

"I thought we played much better than we did on Wednesday," Idaho head coach Leonard Perry said. "I thought the kids competed on the offensive end of the floor.  The kids were aggressive in terms of holding each other accountable for the way we defended."

The Vandals were able to hang with the Bobcats through the first five minutes of the first half before allowing Montana State to go on a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 20-14 lead.  Idaho mustered a small 6-2 run to cut the lead to two points at 22-20 but Montana State responded with an 11-4 run to take a nine point lead with 5:39 left.  The Vandals were able to cut the lead down to four points at 33-29 but couldn???t sustain the momentum as the Bobcats quickly pushed the lead back to nine at 40-31 heading into halftime.

Idaho shot 44 percent in the first half while Montana State shot 62 percent.  Keoni Watson led the Vandals with nine points in the half.

"We had to play man-to-man because of the big guy inside and he really hurt us tonight," Perry said. "We tried to front and we were late on the weak side help in the first half."

The Bobcats used a 6-2 lead to open the second half and quickly had a 13-point lead with 17:19 left in the game.  Nebojsa Jakovljevic hit his second straight 3-pointer at the 15:25 mark to cut the Bobcat lead to six then intercepted a Montana State pass and connected with Watson for a layin to cut the lead to 48-44 with 15:07 left in the game.  However, the Vandals went cold from the floor from there and Montana State took advantage with a 7-0 run to push its lead back to 11 points and led by as many as 15.

Shepard recorded six straight points to single-handedly bring the Vandals within nine points at the 4:17 mark, but Idaho again could not maintain the momentum as a quick 6-0 run by the Bobcats pushed the lead back to 13 and Montana State held on for the 79-69 win.  

"We did a good job of penetrating and getting fouled," Perry said. "We had opportunity after opportunity but when you're missing two and three footers in a close game it makes it difficult."

Idaho shot 41 percent (24-59) from the floor for the night while Montana State shot 61 percent (28-46).  The Vandals hit 6-of-16 3-pointers while the Bobcats connected on 7-of-15.  Idaho held a 31-29 edge in rebounds including 16 on the offensive glass.

Shepard led Idaho with 21 points while Watson and Jakovljevic added 11 apiece.  Montana State was led by Al Beye with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting, nine rebounds and three blocks.  Beye also recorded six dunks on the night.

Idaho (4-19, 1-10 WAC) returns to Moscow to host Nevada on Mon., Feb. 20 at 1 p.m.

"We are going to have a plan for the game on Monday and we will make a game of it," Perry said. "I expect to compete and I'm not going to let us do anything but that."