Box Score Media Book | Final Stats | Photo Gallery
POCATELLO, Idaho - It was the perfect ending to what has been one of the best season's in school history. The Idaho State women's basketball team knocked of first-place Northern Colorado on Saturday 69-61 in the final regular season game and the final home game for senior's
Andrea Blodgett,
Kari Green and
Aralee Smith.
The Bengals improved to 18-11 and 9-7 in Big Sky play. The 18 wins is the third most wins in school history. The ISU win prevented Northern Colorado from winning the Big Sky Conference championship out right. The Bears ended their regular season 17-12 and 12-4 in conference play.
"This could be our best game of the year because of how tough it was and how high the stakes were for Northern Colorado. You knew they were going to play hard because they were playing for a championship," said Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski. "One of our main areas of motivation for tonight's game was to not let them win a championship on our home court."
While the seniors were honored in their final home game it was a freshman who had a career-high night as
Lindsey Reed scored 29 points on eight-of-nine shooting from the field. She was a perfect 3-for-3 from the three-point line and was 10-for-12 from the free throw line.
In the first half, Reed was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field tying the Idaho State single game field goal percentage record for a half with Meg Salness set in 1996. Reed ended the night at 8-of-9 from the field missing on a flat footed jump shot thrown to her during a fast break attempt.
"She's been confident lately. She's at the end of the year where she should be better. She's gone through 29 games and has a little more experience. She went through a little rough patch. She actually gave me a little advice on how to motivate her. I'm more the Wooden philosophy with every peak there is a valley, but she likes the high energy and I think she can maintain that for a long time," said Sobolewski.
Reed and
Ashleigh Vella pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
Chelsea Pickering scored 18 points while Vella had 12 points.
Idaho State shot 51 percent from the floor and held Northern Colorado to 36.8 percent shooting. In the second half, ISU shot 58.8 percent from the floor while Northern Colorado shot 27 percent. The Bengals out rebounded the Bears 36-28.
Neither team led by more than six points in the first half. Trailing 21-15 with 9:23 to play in the period, the Bengals went on a 9-2 run to take a 24-23 lead following two free throws by
Kaela Oakes with 4:44 remaining until halftime. Idaho State led 31-30 at the break.
Northern Colorado scored the opening basket of the second half to take a brief lead but that would be the final lead for the Bears as Idaho State controlled the second half and led by as many as 10 points at 62-52 with 1:31 left in the game.
After Northern Colorado took the 32-31 lead, ISU went on a 7-0 run to lead 39-32 after a layup by Oakes with 16:32 to play in the game. Northern Colorado got within three points at two different times midway through the second half but that was as close as the Bears would get.
The final basket of the game came when senior guard Green who scored on a fast break layup with 22 seconds left in the game. She was the only senior to score during the game.
"She made a big contribution in the last three games," said Sobolewski of Green. "She has great energy and she's smart. She'll contest shots and at 5-3 she manages to pull down a couple rebounds here and there in her time on the court."
The Bengals return to action next week in the Big Sky Tournament for an Idaho State record eighth consecutive trip. The Bengals enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed and will play No. 4 seed Montana on Thursday, March 10 in Portland, Ore. as the Vikings captured the regular season title and the right to host with a 65-63 win over Montana State.
--www.isubengals.com--
