Women's Basketball Handles the Aggies 81-67 to Remain Unbeaten at Home

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POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State women's basketball team defeated visiting Utah State (3-4) 81-67 Tuesday evening to remain undefeated at home. The Bengals maintained a comfortable double-digit lead for nearly 30 minutes of the game while shooting 52.6 percent from the floor and outrebounding the visiting Aggies 48-29.

Four players finished in double digits for Idaho State (4-4) for the second-straight game. Senior guard Apiphany Woods and senior forward Anna Policicchio shared team-high honors with 18 each, while junior guard Brooke Blair chipped in 11 with a season-high five assists and sophomore forward Lindsay Brown scored a career-high 12 points and pulled down six boards.

"We talked about warming up harder [today]," Head Coach Seton Sobolewski said. "We didn't want to change the warmup, we just wanted to go harder in it. It worked out really well."

The Bengals, who suffered their slowest start of the season Saturday against Seattle, jumped out to a 10-3 advantage just under halfway through the first quarter. ISU extended that lead to 12, 19-7 following a jumper from Policicchio with 47 seconds left in the opening quarter and finished with an 11-point lead after the first 10 minutes.

Idaho State was firing on all cylinders, with Policicchio and Brown finishing on the inside and Woods, Blair and Newton threatening the Aggies on the outside. The Bengals shot an even 50 percent from beyond-the-arc and outscored Utah State by 20 points on the inside, registering a 36-16 advantage in the paint.

With 3:33 left in the second quarter, Blair sunk one of her three threes to give ISU its largest lead of the first half, 36-15. The Aggies made their next three jumpers break the 20-point barrier and bring the ISU lead to 18, 40-22 heading into the break.

ISU was on fire in the second half, shooting a combined 60 percent from the field and scoring at will in the paint with a 22-10 advantage. However, the Aggies were resilient and slowly chipped away at the 20-plus point deficit, capping an 11-2 run that cut ISU's lead to nine with just under two minutes remaining. With a minute-and-a-half left, Utah State put ISU on the free throw line and the Bengals converted, sinking 8-of-10 to secure the 14 point victory.

"This year, we have bigger players and we all want to win," said Woods. "We all play together  and hang well with each other. We are just there for each other."

The Bengals hope to continue their winning ways as they travel to Boise, Idaho Friday, Dec. 11 to face in-state foe Boise State at 7 p.m.