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POCATELLO, Idaho - The home win streak is now 14 and this time the Idaho State women's basketball team did it against the top team in the Big Sky conference as the Bengals defeated Montana State 74-65 on Thursday evening at Reed Gym. Idaho State is 10-0 for the season at Reed Gym.
“It was a great team effort,” ISU Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. “Great defense in the second half is what got it done. Our strategy was to try and control the paint as best we could and make them take perimeter shots. They took 31 threes so that really helped us.”
Idaho State improved to 16-8 and 7-4 while Montana State dropped to 15-11 and 9-3. The 16 wins ties for the fifth best single season win mark by a Bengal coach.
Kaela Oakes led Idaho State's four players in double figures with 22 points hitting 6-for-11 from the field. She was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line.
“Kaela did a nice job,” Sobolewski said. “She shot the ball with a very high percentage and made all her free throws.”
Chelsea Pickering and
Lindsey Reed each had 14 points while
Ashleigh Vella had 12 points. Pickering and Reed each had a team-best seven rebounds while Vella had six. Reed posted a game-high three steals.
Vella scored her points while only playing 21 minutes and battling foul trouble. Vella was assigned to guard Montana State's Rachel Semansky, who scored 23 points.
“Vella did a nice job banging,” Sobolewski said. “Even though she only played 21 minutes because of foul trouble she had her hands full with Semansky. Semansky is turning into one of the best post players in our league. Vella worked hard this game and found the open shots. We tried to have Vella set more screens because they weren't switching on her so we had her set more screens so that they would have to maneuver around her.”
Idaho State shot 39.7 percent from the field and held the Bobcats to 32.8 percent shooting, including 25.7 percent (9-of-35) in the second half. Montana State only shot 17 percent (3-of-17) from the arc in the second half. Montana State did out rebound Idaho State, 46-37.
“Our defensive intensity in the second half was much better,” Sobolewski said. “That was the biggest adjustment we had to make in the second half."
Montana State led for nearly the entire first half and the Bengals fell behind by as many as eight points at 11-3 early in the game.
“I don't think you do anything drastic when things aren't going well, you don't over correct,” Sobolewski said. “You make subtle adjustments and then after several subtle adjustments then you do something a little more drastic. With 35 minutes left in the game I wasn't getting ready to change our whole strategy.”
That thought process worked as the Bengals were set to make their run late in the half.
Trailing 32-27 with 4:18 left in the first half, ISU went on a 7-0 run and took its first lead of the game on a Pickering three-pointer with 1:51 to play until halftime. Less than a minute later Pickering connected on a layup to up the lead to 36-32. Montana State countered by taking a 5-0 run, ahead 37-36, with 48 seconds left but Oakes followed with a layup of her own handing ISU a one-point lead at the break.
The defensive intensity kicked in for ISU in the second half as Montana State went the first five minutes scoreless, allowing Idaho State to take a 51-37 lead at the 15:15 mark of the second half after a three-pointer by Oakes.
The lead ballooned to 19 with 8:14 left in the game after two free throws by
Sheryl Bitter, who remains perfect at the line hitting 4-of-4 for the season. Idaho State never allowed Montana State to get any closer than eight points the rest of the way. The Bengals maintained their second-half lead despite Vella and
Cydney Horton fouling out in the second half.
Idaho State returns home host Montana on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Reed Gym. The Bengals encourage fans to wear Pink to the game to help support breast cancer awareness. The Bengal men's team plays Cal State Fullerton at 4 p.m. and fans that buy a ticket to the men's game can watch the women's game for free.
--www.isubengals.com--
