Bengal Women Play Road Game at Southern Utah

Notes l Live Video l Live Audio l Live Stats


POCATELLO, Idaho - The Bengals travel to play Southern Utah in the only game of the week for Idaho State at 2 p.m. Saturday at Centrum Arena in Cedar City, Utah. ISU look to get out of a three-game losing streak. They have fallen to Eastern Washington (67-55), North Dakota (48-47) and Northern Colorado (62-55).

The game Saturday will be the first of four games in eight days for the Bengals which includes a home game against Weber State Monday at 7 p.m. and games at Montana Thursday and Montana State Saturday.

The Bengals are led by Lindsey Reed who averages 14.6 points per game. Senior Forward Jessica Tingey averages 11.3 PPG and leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game.

ABOUT SOUTHERN UTAH
The Thunderbirds currently sit in a three-way tie for third in the Big Sky standings with Montana and Sacramento State at 3-2. SUU is 9-5 overall but is 4-0 at Centrum Arena.

The T-Birds defeated Weber State 76-64 Thursday night in Cedar City.
Southern Utah is led by Lori Parkinson who averages 11.8 PPG and Carli Moreland scores 11.5 PPG and leads the T-Birds with 7.6 rebounds per game.

Head Coach JR Payne is in her sixth year at the helm of the SUU women's basketball program. She has a career record of 53-80.

LAST GAME: NORTHERN COLORADO
Stephanie Lee scored 14 of her 21 points in the second half to help Northern Colorado pull away late and beat Idaho State 62-55 Saturday afternoon at Reed Gym.

The Bears started the game with a 9-0 run to put the Bengals in a big deficit for the third straight game. The lead held for much of the first half but trailing 19-10 with 6:43 left, the Bengals found their grove. ISU outscored NC 16-2 to close out the half and took a 26-21 lead into the break.

The Bears started the second half with an 11-4 run, culminating in a Lee layup with 14:23 to play to take a 32-30 lead.

After trading leads for much of the second half, Lindsey Reed tied the game at 45 with two free throws at the 4:57 mark.From that point on the Bears offense caught fire and outscored the Bengals 17-10 to finish off the game.

SOBOLEWSKI ONE WIN AWAY FROM IDAHO STATE RECORD
With the win at Portland State Seton Sobolewski tied former ISU coach Jon Newlee for Idaho State record for Big Sky Conference wins at 54. Sobolewski has 89 wins which is just four wins shy of Newlee's ISU record 93 wins.

REED HITS THE MILLENNIUM MARK
With 19 points against Illinois-Chicago Lindsey Reed surpassed 1000 career points. She is just the 17th player in ISU history to join the 1000 point club. She also hit the 500 career rebound mark against Black Hills State in the first game of the season. Reed is the leading scorer for the Bengals this season and averages 14.6 PPG.


A DECADE OF THE BIG SKY CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
Idaho State has advanced to a school record 10 straight Big Sky Conference Tournaments. In that time the Bengals have advanced to two NCAA tournaments (07 and 12) and four WNITs (04, 06, 08 and 13).

TRIP TO THE WNIT
The Bengals played in their second-consecutive post season national tournament in 2013. The Bengals played Brigham Young in Provo in the opening round of the WNIT. The Bengals fell 69-54 to the Cougars. Ashleigh Vella scored a team high 15 points and Jessa Jeppesen grabbed eight rebounds in the loss to BYU.

TWO STARTERS RETURN FOR THE BENGALS
Kara Jenkins and Lindsey Reed return for the Bengals. Jenkins comes into the season with 580 career points and 479 career rebounds. She has played in 93 games and has 53 starts for Idaho State.

Reed has 970 career points and 492 career rebounds. She has 92 games under her belt including 89 starts in her career at ISU.

OTHER RETURNERS FOR THE BENGALS
Along with the two starters the Bengals have three other seniors, one junior and one sophomore to round out the list of returning players.

Senior Jessica Tingey, formerly Jessica Jensen, has 64 career points and 65 career rebounds. Senior Alissa Willard, a JC transfer, played in 15 games in 2012-13 and scored four points. Senior Sheryl Bitter has the most experience of tvhe last season's non-starters; she had played in 77 games and scored 109 points in her career at Idaho State.

Junior Becca Schimpsher has played in 35 career games and has 46 points. Sophomore Anna Lee Policicchio played in only six games last season but spent time over the summer with the Canadian U19 National team.

ISU NEWCOMERS
The Bengals have eight newcomers, one JC transfer in junior guard Jasmine Lemon and seven freshmen; Grace Kenyon, Sherise Porchia, Katrina Bacovcin, April Dawson, Lindsay Brown, Natalie Mecham and Kyndall Adams.

BENGALS RANKED FIFTH IN BOTH PRESEASON POLLS
The Idaho State Women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky Conference by both the coaches and the media.

The first five spots were the same in both polls. Eastern Washington is the favorite followed by Montana, Northern Colorado, Montana State then Idaho State.

In the coaches poll the Bengals were picked just above Southern Utah followed by Portland State, North Dakota, Sacramento State, Northern Arizona and Weber State. In the Media Poll Sacramento State was picked in the sixth spot followed by Portland State Southern Utah, North Dakota, Northern Arizona and Weber State. ISU received four first place votes in the media poll out of 30 ballots cast.