Dec. 5, 2009
Final Stats
Utah State Box Score 
Tempe, AZ -- Freshman Ashleigh Vella caught her own offensive rebound and laid it in before the buzzer putting the Bengals up 55-53 with .03 left on the clock. She would draw the foul, convert the free throw and make the steal off of Utah State's inbound pass to give Idaho State its second win of the season defeating the Aggies 56-53 at the Arizona State Tournament on Saturday afternoon. The Bengals improved to 2-7 while the Aggies fell to 3-3 for the season.
Utah State came on strong in the second half to dwindle down a 14 point ISU lead outscoring the Bengals 37-32 for the period. Idaho State built its 14 point lead after heading into the break ahead 24-16, after a 6-0 run by junior Chelsea Pickering to open the second half.
ISU's 14 point lead, up 30-16, was its largest of the game when Pickering hit a free throw to convert for the three-point play with 16:56 left on the clock in the second half. Pickering, who was held to zero points before fouling out against the Sun Devils, recorded 15 points for the second most points in Saturday's game. She hit 6-of-14 from the field and 2-of-5 from the arc helping Idaho State out-shot the Aggies 40.4-to-34.4 percent.
Utah State's Trisha Jo Goddard would respond with a three-pointer of her own and would score eight of her ten points in the second half during a 15-2 Utah State run to put the Aggies within a point of the Bengals.
ISU would work it back to a nine point lead, but the Aggies would go on another run, a 14-5 run, to tie the game at 45-45 off of a LaCale Pringle-Buchanan jumper with 3:35 left. Pringle-Buchanan would give the Bengals trouble throughout the second half scoring 11 of her 14 points in that period alone.
The Aggies would post three tied scores in the remaining minutes in which freshman Morgan Wohltman would pull the Bengals out of twice. The first off a jumper to take a 47-45 lead, then again off a three-pointer for a 50-47 leads with 1:59 remaining.
Wohltman, a freshman forward, chipped in 11 points for the Bengals hitting 3-of-4 from the arc to help the Bengals post a 43.8 percent accuracy for the game. USU's Goddard brought the score to its seventh and final tie at 53-53 with 16 second left off of a layup.
The Bengals would look to Wohltman to give the Bengals a lead when she attempted a jump-shot that was blocked by Pringle-Buchanan. Vella would snatch the offensive rebound and put up a layup that would rim and fall out. Vella grabbed her own offensive rebound and laid it in before the buzzer to ultimately give the Bengals the victory.
"It was nice to see that we didn't fold once the momentum started going the other way, that we didn't give up and that is a small sign of maturity," said Head Coach Seton Sobolewski. "We are getting more mature and gaining experience as we play these tough games helping us grow up a little bit quicker than normal and we're improving."
Vella's two offensive boards in the final seconds propelled the forward to her first double-figure rebounding game of her performance with 11 boards. Senior Oana Iacovita also recorder her first double-figure rebounding game with 11 boards as well. She also recorded her first and the team's first double-double performance of the season when she posted a game-high 16 points. Vella and Iacovita helped the Bengals out-rebound the Aggies 40-34.
Idaho State continues its long road season at Minnesota on Wednesday, December 9 at 6:05 p.m. for its eighth of ten games away from home.
