Bengal Women Host Northern Arizona Saturday

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POCATELLO, Idaho - The Idaho State Bengals host Northern Arizona Saturday at 2 p.m. in Reed Gym. The Bengals currently sit in a tie for fifth place in the Big Sky with Sacramento State at 5-4 with just one game to play in the first half of the conference slate.
 
The Bengals have both confidence and momentum after winning four of the last five games including a 62-54 win over the second ranked scoring offense in the nation, Sacramento State.
 
The Bengals are led by Lindsey Reed who averages 14.4 points per game and Jessica Tingey who scores 11.2 PPG and leads the Bengals with 6.4 rebounds per games.
 
ABOUT NORTHERN ARIZONA
The Lumberjacks sit in a tie with Portland State in ninth place in the Big Sky rankings at 3-6 but are coming off a 96-87 win over Weber State Thursday night.
 
Amanda Frost leads NAU with a Big Sky leading 22.7 points per game. Erikka Banks scores 13.2 PPG for the lumberjacks and leads Northern Arizona with 8.4 rebounds per game. Brittani Lusain scores 11.7 PPG for NAU.
 
The Lumberjacks are coached by Sue Darling in her second season at the helm at NAU. Darling has a 14-33 record in her first two seasons at Northern Arizona.
 
LAST GAME: SACRAMENTO STATE
The Idaho State Bengals held Sacramento State, the second ranked scoring team in the country, to their lowest point total of the season en route to a 62-53 win on Thursday night.
 
The Hornets came into the game averaging 90.5 points per game but the Bengals controlled the tempo with their usual strong defense and methodical offense to limit Hornet possessions.
 
The Idaho State strategy worked to perfection.
 
Lindsey Reed led all scorers with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to pace the Bengals.
 
The Bengals held Sac State to 18-of-66 (.273) shooting while shooting a season high 24-of-42(.571).
 
SOBOLEWSKI TIES RECORD FOR WINNINGEST COACH IN ISU HISTORY
With the win against Sacramento State Seton Sobolewski tied Jon Newlee with 93 career wins at ISU. Sobolewski surpassed Newlee for career Big Sky wins with the win at Southern Utah on January, 18.
 
 
 
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 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.