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POCATELLO, Idaho –
Lindsey Reed's 3-pointer fell short in the waning seconds and North Dakota held on to win 48-47 over Idaho State at Reed Gym Thursday night.
The defensive battle started out with neither team scoring from the field until North Dakota's Mia Loyd scored a layup with 15:45 left in the first half to give UND a 5-0 lead.
Idaho State answered back with a Reed layup on their next possession.
UND then extended its lead to 10-2 on a Madi Buck layup with 12:35 left in the half.
The Bengals closed went on an 18-10 run to tie the game at 20 on a layup by
Jessica Tingey with 52 seconds left in the half.
Makailah Dyer hit a 3-pointer 36 seconds before the half to give UND a 23-20 halftime lead.
The second half was tightly contested and included 10 lead changes and two ties. North Dakota took the largest lead of the second half on a free throw by Leah Szabla with 1:37 left in the game.
Sheryl Bitter cut the lead to 48-47 on a 3-pointer on the Bengals next possession.
North Dakota missed two point-blank shots and gave the Bengals had one more shot at a basket in the final seconds. Reed's shot came up just short and the ball bounced out of bounds off an ISU player with just three seconds left to play.
Idaho State fouled Leah Szabla with .8 seconds on the clock and she intentionally missed the shot to ice the clock and seal the victory for UND.
The Bengals move to 3-9 on the season and 1-2 in Big Sky Conference play. North Dakota remains on top of the Big Sky with a 4-0 conference record and 9-4 overall.
"We played really hard and we put ourselves in a position to win," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "In the end we didn't finish it off because of some details but there has been a lot of improvement."
Reed led Idaho State with points and Tingey hauled in eight rebounds for the Bengals.
Buck led UND with 11 points and 12 rebounds while Loyd added 11 points for North Dakota.
North Dakota outrebounded Idaho State 48-31.
"Part of the difference on the boards was our effort and part of it is genetics," Sobolewski said. "They are just a much bigger team than us but we need to anticipate where the ball is going to be a little bit better."
The Bengals play host to Northern Colorado Saturday at 2 p.m. at Reed Gym. The Bears are 1-3 in conference play after a 68-49 win over Weber State Thursday Night.
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