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POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State women's basketball team defeated visiting Montana Tech 77-55 Friday evening at the ICCU Court at Reed Gym. The Bengals dominated play inside, more than doubling the Orediggers' paint production 46-20 and shot a season-high 50.8 percent from the field.
Three players finished in double-figures for the Bengals. Senior guard
Freya Newton and freshman forward
Sai Tapasa shared game-high honors with 13, a career-high for Tapasa, while sophomore guard
Grace Kenyon chipped in 11. Kenyon led the rebounding effort with seven and dished out a career-high eight assists in the win.
"We've got to give a lot of credit to Montana Tech," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "They showed up tonight and played hard...I thought offensively our forwards did a pretty good job. You look at Grace and Sai…I don't know the last time an ISU player had eight assists. Grace was two assists and three rebounds shy of a triple double."
Montana Tech (6-7) took the first lead 2-0 after Martha Dembek converted two at the free throw line, but the first quarter was all ISU as the Bengals shot an even 50 percent from the field and forced the Orediggers to shoot just 12.5 percent from the floor and cruised to the early 23-9 first quarter lead.
Idaho State (5-5) cooled off a bit in the second, and the Orediggers chipped away at ISU's lead. Twice Montana Tech cut ISU's lead to 11, but an 11-3 run gave the Bengals their largest lead of the game thus far at 19, 36-17 with 3:28 remaining in the second quarter. Montana Tech finished the quarter with nine unanswered points to cut the lead to 10, 36-26 heading into the break.
Coming out of the break, Idaho State doubled Montana Tech's offensive output 18-9 to take a 19-point lead heading into the final quarter, and a 23-point fourth quarter effort stunted Montana Tech's final efforts for a comeback. The Bengals shot 53.3 percent in the fourth and cruised to the 77-55 win.
"Again, like always, my concern is on the defensive end," Sobolewski said. "We foul too much, we didn't hit our defensive goals, not all of them, and they out-toughed us in a lot of different ways."
Idaho State committed 20 fouls on the evening with two players fouling out. Consequently, Montana Tech took 22 trips to the free throw line for 18 total points.
Montana Tech was led by Dembek with 20 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds. Dembek also shared team-high honors in assists with four.
Idaho State returns to play Tuesday, Dec. 20th as the Bengals host Utah Valley at the ICCU Court at Reed Gym. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
