Box Score
POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State dropped its first conference game of the season to Montana State, 79-67 in overtime Thursday night in Reed Gym in front of a crowd of 1,337. The Bengals drop to 8-1 in Big Sky Conference play and are 16-6 overall while the Bobcats improve to 15-7 overall and 7-3 in conference action. The Bengals remain in first place in the Big Sky.
Kaela Oakes led the Bengals in scoring with 17, shooting 6-for-14 from the field.
Chelsea Pickering put in a double-double night with 15 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 5-for-20 from the field. Pickering's 10 rebounds led the team in that stat.
The team shot 5-for-26 from the three point line. Oakes and Pickering each had two and
Kara Jenkins had one.
Overall, ISU shot 22-for-69 from the field (31.9 percent) and turned the ball over 16 times. Montana State shot 25-for-63 from the field (39.7 percent). The Bengals were 18-for-26 from the free throw line. ISU missed four free throws in the final minute of the game to leave the door open for MSU to tie it up at 65 at the end of regulation.
“Free throws down the stretch really start to add up,” ISU Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. “We had two trips to the line where we missed our free throws and it really impacted the game, making it a two-point game as opposed to a three or four-point game. In the second half we shot 53 percent from the free throw line and that really hurt us.”
ISU led by as much as 16 points in the contest, but slowly let that slip away as the Bobcat's Katie Bussey tallied up a career-high 41 points leading the way to as much as a 14-point Montana State lead in overtime play. Bussey's 41 points tied the Big Sky single game record.
“That was definitely was one of the best performance we have seen in Reed Gym by a single player in the last four years,” Sobolewski said. “She is just a fantastic talent. She can have games like that. Anything she threw near the basket went in, or we fouled her. She is such a tough match up. We did a great job on everybody else and to Bussey's credit she really stepped up when her team needed her to.”
The Bengals will next host Montana (6-3 Big Sky, 14-7 overall) on Monday, Feb. 6 at 7:05 pm MST on the Idaho Central Credit Union Court in Reed Gym.
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