Brock Mackenzie hopes to make the most of a homecoming as he leads Idaho State into his old neighborhood to duel Washington in a nonconference men’s basketball game Saturday night in Seattle.
Mackenzie, a graduate transfer from Point Loma Nazarene, played his high school ball at Eastside Catholic in the Seattle suburb of Sammamish.
The guard, just a second-team all-league selection in high school, made a name for himself as a sophomore at Point Loma when he nailed a game-winning 3-pointer as part of a 34-point explosion in the 2020 PacWest Conference tournament finals, earning the Sea Lions an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Unfortunately, the season-ending event was canceled because of COVID.
Mackenzie left Point Loma as one of its all-time leading scorers and 3-point shooters. He has picked up at Idaho State where he left off, currently averaging 13.5 points while shooting 50 percent on threes for the Bengals.
Coming off a 76-70 home loss to St. Thomas of Minnesota, Idaho State (3-8) hasn’t had a problem scoring, point guard Miguel Tomley said.
“Our rebounding has to be our biggest thing that we need to change,” he said. “And that has been something that’s been told from the jump. So we need to get that straight.”
Rebounding was a problem the last time the Bengals visited Seattle. They had just 19 in an 85-66 shellacking in December of 2013.
Washington (8-3) was outrebounded 35-30 by Cal Poly in a hard-fought74-68 home win on Tuesday. Keion Brooks was the difference in the game, hitting 10 of his 16 shots en route to 30 points.
The Huskies have alternated losses and wins since a 6-1 start, but Brooks has been consistently good, averaging 17.8 points per game.
He credited his teammates after the Cal Poly performance.
“I kinda got into a groove a little bit,” the Kentucky transfer said. “My teammates did a great job of finding me. We made a lot of good decisions. I was the beneficiary of it.”
–Field Level Media