Women's Basketball's Big 12 Upset Upended by Fourth Quarter Texas Tech Run

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LUBBOCK, Texas – The Idaho State women's basketball team made a strong case for an upset win, but the Texas Tech Lady Raiders took advantage of last-minute Bengal fouls and desperation threes to sneak away with the win, 79-64.

Senior forward Anna Policicchio led the Bengals with 19 points and seven boards before fouling out with 1:08 left in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Brooke Blair and senior guard Apiphany Woods also finished in double figures with 16 and 15 points respectively.

"It's hard for me to be really upset about this one because there were so many positives," Head Coach Seton Sobolewski said. "At one point in the first half I realized all five players on the floor weren't on our team last year, and they were hanging with a Big 12 team."

Sobolewski opted for a smaller lineup against Texas Tech, starting freshman guard Isabel Vara de Rey in place of junior forward Lindsay Brown. With the smaller lineup, the Bengals started hot with a steal off the bat from Vara de Rey. ISU nearly traded point-for-point with the Red Raiders and finished the fourth quarter up two points, 15-13.

ISU increased its lead to four at the start of the second with a layup from Policicchio following the offensive rebound from freshman forward Jenna Morch, but the four-point lead was short-lived as Texas Tech went on an 8-0 run for the 21-17 advantage. A three-pointer from Blair cut the lead to one, but ISU hit a lull and TTU rode a 14-2 run to finish the second quarter. The Bengals headed into halftime down 12, 35-23.

Texas Tech started the third with two layups and a jumper to extend its lead to 16 points, 41-25, but the Bengals started to slowly chip away. A jumper and three from Blair and a three from junior forward Freya Newton cut the lead to 12 with 7:04 left in the third, but TTU again scored in the paint for another 14-point advantage. With 2:43 left in the third, the Bengals faced their largest deficit of the game at 17, 54-37. Then, ISU's Woods and Vara de Rey lit it up. Vara de Rey tossed in a layup followed by a steal and three from Woods. Vara de Rey added a three, and Woods grabbed a defensive board went the length of the court in six seconds to score the fastbreak layup. ISU headed into the fourth down seven, 54-47.

Policicchio kept the run going with a layup to start the fourth, but the Red Raiders responded with a run of their own, scoring eight straight for the 62-49 advantage. The Bengals chipped away and came within seven off a layup from Policicchio with 3:40 left, but TTU finished on a 13-6 run to close the quarter and claim the victory 78-64.

"We shot the ball really well at times," Sobolewski said. "We would have shot over 40 percent from three if it weren't for a couple of tough shots we took at the end."

The Bengals have a brief two-day break before lacing up once more in their final leg of their five-game road trip. Next up for ISU is Southeastern Missouri in the first game of the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic on Friday, Nov. 27 at 4:30 p.m. MST.