Jan. 10, 2010
Final Stats
Complete Stat Packet: Idaho State 74 - Northern Colorado 65 
Pocatello, ID - Senior Oana Iacovita led the Bengals with 21 points and freshman Ashleigh Vella recorded her first double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds in Idaho State's 74-65 victory over Northern Colorado at Reed Gym Saturday night. The Bears were able to cut Idaho State's multiple ten-point leads to three several times, but the Bengals would prevail. Idaho State (8-9, BSC 3-1) improved its home winning streak to six while maintaining its third place ranking in the conference standings. Northern Colorado fell to 8-8 for the season and 1-2 in league action.
Vella's 14 rebound effort is a season-high for a Bengal which helped ISU out-rebound its opponent 38-32 for its second game in a row. ISU has only out-rebounded its opponents four times this season. Iacovita led the Bengals with 21 points hitting 7-of-14 from the field and 7-of-9 from the line. Senior Andrea Videbeck chipped in 12 points and record eight assists.
"Vella is staring to get it. Every game she does a little bit more here and there," said Head Coach Sobolewski of the freshman's double-double performance. "She was doing pretty well offensively and now she is getting the rebounding, the consistent effort of running in every time and putting herself in position to get an offensive or defensive rebound."
Idaho State opened with a 4-0 start, but quickly played catch up for nearly ten minutes. Until the Bengals were able to work out the Bear's zone defense and make solid plays on the ball. Senior Devin Diehl helped bring the Bengals around as she executed from the arc to give Idaho State a 19-16 lead with 9:04 left in the first half. Northern Colorado would never overtake the Bengals from that point posting a 35-31 score heading into the break.
"We were able to get the ball to people in the right situations when we were more patient. I think that is one of the things that encouraged Northern Colorado to use the zone because we were getting good looks and taking advantage of mismatches, which was a tough situation because we hadn't practiced zone since Montana. They did eventually slow down after they made some initial mistakes. They were more composed and took better shots."
The Bengals took full control when it started the second half with a quick 6-0 run in the first 1:20 to take its first 10-point lead of the game. All of ISU's points in the run were layups resulting from a stolen pass. Northern Colorado's Courtney Stoermer was pick-pocketed off the first pass by Videbeck who took it to the basket. Stoermer had no luck on her second attempt when Vella snatched the ball and finished with a layup.
The Bears would take a time out to end the hot start, but the Bengals weren't finished as senior Diehl wanted her turn in the action forcing the turnover. She would pass it off and later in the possession Pickering would lay it up off an offensive rebound from Vella.
Northern Colorado's hot hands would help the Bears dwindle ISU to a three point lead several times, but the Bengals would continue to roll it back in their favor in a nail-biting yo-yo effect. Stoermer and Kaisha Brown helped push the Bears late with Stoermer posting 12 of her 17 points for the night and Brown recording 9 of her 15 in the second half alone. Whitley Cox would lead the Bears with 20 points hitting 7-of-17 from the field, 5-of-7 from the line and knocking down a trey.
"You would hope that you could play good enough defense to sustain your lead and continue to build it, but you have to give Northern Colorado credit, they hit some tough shots. They really stepped it up," said Sobolewski. "They put Kaisha Brown in as a three player tonight and she is usually a four which was something we weren't anticipating and she hit some tough shots doubling her average against us."
A game of turnovers that both teams took advantage of as Northern Colorado committed 22 turnovers that the Bengals turned into 19 extra points while ISU had 18 turnovers itself that the Bears converted into 20 points.
The Bengals were hot from the arc in the first half hitting 3-of-6 (50 percent), but its shooting would cool in the second falling to 3-of-15. However, Northern Colorado found the arc friendly in the second half with the Bears hitting 5-of-10.
Idaho State will hit the road for its next four games before returning to Reed Gym in February. Fortunately, the Bengals will have only one game next week during its long road stint when Weber State hosts ISU on Friday, January 15 at the Dee Events Center. Tip-off begins at 7:05 p.m.
Notes: Idaho State extends its series record to 9-0 against Northern Colorado ... Vella's 14 points ties her career-high from the previous night and her 14 rebounds sets her career-high.
