March 12, 2010
Final Stats
Complete Booklet: Idaho State 61 - Portland State 75 
Cheney, Wash. - The No. 4 seed Idaho State women's basketball team fell 61-75 to the No. 5 seed Portland State Vikings Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament bringing the Bengals' six-game winning streak to an end. The Bengals finished with a .500 season, however, with a 15-15 overall record and a 10-6 record in the Big Sky. The tournament appearance was ISU's 12th overall and seventh consecutive trip.
Senior Oana Iacovita was both ISU's and the game's high scorer, notching her 1,000th career point early in the second half. Iacovita finished the contest with 22 total points and four rebounds. Iacovita's performance marked the seventh game of her senior season in which the 6-1 forward scored 20 or more points, including her career-high 31 points scored at Montana State in January. The 22 points brought Iacovita's career total to 1,008 points.
"Looking back over the last four years, I had an amazing experience at Idaho State," Iacovita said.
Junior Chelsea Pickering was the only other Bengal to score in the double digits, notching 10 by the end of the contest as well as pulling down a team-high six rebounds. Senior Devin Diehl recorded her 122nd career game played tying her with Michelle Grohs for the most games played by a Bengal.
In the first half, Portland State shot 42.9 percent from the arc knocking down six treys, the most scored by an opponent in the first half of any game this season and tying the Boise State (11/19/09) and Sacramento State (3/5/10) games for threes allowed in a half. Idaho State went four and a half minutes without scoring until freshman Ashleigh Vella made a jump shot from the elbow at the 11:48 mark to break the dry spell and bring the score to 9-15.
"Defensively, we didn't do a very good job and to Portland State's credit, they hit some tough shots," ISU head coach Seton Sobolewski said. "We struggled a little bit in transition and I think that our lack of offense led to some discouraged play on defense."
Vikings went on an 11-2 run answered by an 8-0 Idaho State run, however, it just wasn't quite enough as the Vikings led by as much as 15 points during the half before closing out the first half 41-30. Overall, the Vikings shot 44.6 percent for the game and 34.8 percent from the three-point line to quiet an ISU team that went just 38.7 percent from the field.
"The chemistry that we've had going in after winning six in a row just wasn't there tonight," Iacovita said. "If we had that chemistry and energy we would have gone a lot further in the tournament. We had beaten Portland State already this season and everyone else in the conference with the exception of Montana so I believe we could have come out of the tournament with a championship."
During the last competition between the two teams, ISU defeated PSU 63-51 in Pocatello, Idaho on Feb. 26.
"When we beat [Portland State], we played much better defense," Sobolewski said. "We kept the perimeter players in check pretty well. Portland State only scored 51 points on us, but tonight they came ready to play and knocked down a lot of shots. Faucher stepped in and helped when she needed to and their forwards did a great job."
Kelli Valentine and Kelly Marchant led PSU with 14 points a piece while Lexi Bishop pitched in with 13. The Vikings will take on No. 2 seed Montana in the semifinal Friday, March 12 and 3:30 p.m. PST. The winner of the match-up will play the winner of the Eastern Was
