March 11, 2008
OGDEN, Utah --- Senior center Natalie Doma has been named the Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player for the 2007-08 season. It is the third time a Bengal has won the award. Doma was a unanimous selection for the All-Conference first team and is making her third consecutive appearance on the team. Senior guard Andrea Lightfoot was also named to the first team for the third consecutive year. The awards were decided following a vote by the league's nine head coaches.
Natalie Doma, Montana's Mandy Morales and Portland State's Claire Faucher were unanimous selections to the first team. The honor was the third-consecutive for Morales and Doma and the first for sophomore Faucher. Montana State senior Rebecca Mercer earned first-team honors this year. Weber States' Sara Tuomi and Idaho State's Andrea Lightfoot were also named to the first team for the third year in a row.
Doma was named the league's Most Valuable Player for 2007-08. The 6-3 center is averaging 24.8 points and 12.0 rebounds per game this season and is the only player in the nation ranked in the Top Five in the NCAA statistics in both scoring and rebounding. The senior was officially named to the final ballot for the John Wooden Award this week, becoming the first women's basketball player in Idaho State and Big Sky history to ever be a finalist for a National Player of the Year Award.
The 2007-08 campaign was a historical one all around for the native of Victoria, British Columbia. Doma wrote her name all over the conference record books as she became the Big Sky's all-time leading scorer with 2,249 career points. She passed former Montana standout Shannon Cate on the all-time conference list on Feb. 28 in Pocatello, Idaho when she notched 34 points in a win over Sacramento State. Earlier in the season, she became Idaho State's all-time leading scorer, regardless of gender.
Doma is Big Sky's all-time leading rebounder with 1,138 career boards, all-time field goal leader with 844 and all-time free throw leader with 506 as well. She has scored 30 or more points six times this season and leads the conference in double-doubles with 24. Doma also received Big Sky Player of the Week honors six times. She joins Andrea Lightfoot (2006) and Mandi Carver (2001) as the only Idaho State Bengals to be named Big Sky Most Valuable Player.
Lightfoot ended the regular season as the fourth leading scorer in the Big Sky at 16.5 points per game. She was also the leagues best free throw shooter at 89.8 percent. That is the sixth best percentage in the nation. At one point this season, she hit an Idaho State record 30 consecutive free throws. She made the first team for the third straight year, including when she was named the Most Valuable Player in 2006. She was also named the conference Newcomer of the Year that same season. She is the second leading scorer in Idaho State history behind Doma with 1,550. Her career scoring average of 17.4 points per game is also second only to Doma.
The Bengals finished in second place in the Big Sky with a 20-8 overall record. Their 12 conference wins was the second most in the program's history. Idaho State will now take two of the last three league MVP's into the 2008 Big Sky Conference tournament. The Bengals will play in the semi-finals Friday March 14th at 5:35 pm in Missoula, Montana. They will face the highest remaining seed to survive Thursday's quarterfinals.
