March 10, 2007
Box Score |
Celebration Video |
Photo Gallery 
Missoula, MT--Natalie Doma recorded a 24-point, 16-rebound double-double effort to lead Idaho State to an 84-78 victory over Northern Arizona in the championship game of the 2007 Chinook Wireless Big Sky Conference tournament Saturday at Dahlberg Arena. The Bengals earn the league's automatic berth into the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament.
The win marks the second-ever tournament title for Idaho State, who last went to the NCAA Tournament in 2001.
"This means a lot to us," said ISU head coach Jon Newlee. "Our players deserve it. I'm so happy for them. They work so hard and it has now paid off for them. It's great for our program. We thought we should have won it last year and we didn't. It's an amazing feeling to have won this in Missoula. I think we're the first team besides Montana to do that."
Leading 72-65 win 3:28 to play, Northern Arizona's Megan Porter hit a pair of free throws, followed by an Alyssa Wahl three to cut the ISU lead to just two points, 72-70, with 2:37 remaining.
Doma answered with a short jumper and NAU decided to foul four straight times to send Idaho State into the bonus. The Bengals went 10-of-10 from the foul line over the final 54 seconds to secure the championship.
After connecting on just one three-point field goal in the first half, Idaho State caught fire from long range, hitting seven treys in the second half. The Bengals had a stretch of four made threes on four straight possessions.
"I thought we got off to a great start from an offensive standpoint," Newlee said. "It was at a tempo that we wanted to play. We did a great job of opening up the old fun-and-gun in the second half and hit our 3's and really busted things open."
Andrea Lightfoot scored 21 points, 13 of which came in the final nine minutes of the contest. The junior guard connected on 6-of-13 shots from the field, and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
Doma hit 8-of-22 shots and was also perfect from the charity stripe, making 7-of-7. The junior center also pulled down 16 rebounds for her 24th double-double of the season. Doma grabbed 34 rebounds over ISU's two tournament games--the second-most in Big Sky Tournament history. Doma was named the tournament's MVP for her two tournament performances.
Devin Diehl helped with 12 points and Michelle Grohs added 11. Grohs hit three treys in the second half for ISU. Kaylynn Fager came off the bench to score eight points, including a 2-of-2 mark from long range. Jeni Boesel added six points with five assists and a steal.
Wahl led Northern Arizona with 30 points and Porter added 15 points with 14 rebounds. Sade Cunningham registered 12 points with 10 assists for the Lumberjacks.
Idaho State improves to 17-13 with the win, while Northern Arizona ended its season with a 20-12 record.
All-Tournament Team: Natalie Doma, ISU (MVP); Andrea Lightfoot, ISU; Megan Porter, NAU; Alyssa Wahl, NAU; Mandy Morales, UM; Chelsey Warburton, WSU.
ISU's seed and opponent will be announced Monday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
