Nov. 26, 2005
Box Score
Honolulu, HI--Trailing by just six points at halftime, Idaho State was outscored 17-3 through the first five minutes of the second half and never recovered in a 74-51 loss to Washington State Saturday at the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The loss drops Idaho State to 0-3 on the season, while Washington State improves to 3-1. The Bengals will continue tournament play in Hawaii on Sunday at 2 p.m. mountain time. ISU will face the loser of the Eastern Michigan/Cal State Northridge game.
Idaho State looked impressive in the first half, using a match-up zone defense that forced Washington State into ten first half turnovers. On the game, Idaho State forced the Cougars into 20 turnovers.
"The zone was working well," said ISU head coach Jon Newlee. "We just couldn't keep them (WSU) off the boards. We played real soft and didn't hit the boards hard enough."
Washington State's Kate Benz alone notched 15 first half rebounds, finishing with 21 on the game--just one shy of tying the all-time WSU single-game record of 21 set in 1975. The Cougars out-rebounded the Bengals 58-35 on the game.
The Bengals also got a lot of good looks around the basket, but couldn't capitalize. ISU had 22 lay-up opportunities and missed on 15 of those chances.
"We get to the rim time after time and don't finish," Newlee said. "We make a strong move to get open and then we get afraid of the contact and don't close out the deal. We have to get stronger at converting on the easy shots."
Andrea Lightfoot led the Bengals with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting. The sophomore guard also collected four rebounds and two assists. Natalie Doma also reached double-figure scoring with 12 points. Doma, who didn't start the game for the first time this season, connected on 4-of-20 shots from the field, 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Joanna Hixon fronted the team with nine rebounds in just 17 minutes of play. Jeni Boesel led ISU with six assists.
As a team, Idaho State struggled from the floor, connecting on just 22.9 percent of its shots. The Bengals were 25.9 percent from three-point range, and 63.2 from the charity stripe. Washington State finished the game shooting 42.6 percent from the field, 53.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 78.9 percent from the free throw line.
Led by Charmaine Jones' 13 points, Washington State had five players reach double-digit scoring. Benz finished with a 12-point, 21-rebound double-double effort.
Idaho State will continue play at the Rainbow Wahine Classic on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 2 p.m. (MST) against the loser of the Eastern Michigan/Cal State Northridge matchup. ISU's next home game will be a Nov. 30 matchup with St. Martin's.
