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Photo Gallery POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State women's basketball team lost its second-straight game Thursday evening, falling to visiting North Dakota 60-57 at the ICCU Court at Reed Gym.
Idaho State (10-10, 3-6 BSC) faced a seven-point deficit with 3:39 remaining in the game after UND's Jill Morton knocked down 1-of-2 at the line to earn the 57-50 lead. On the ensuing possession, freshman guard
Saylair Grandon found an opening to the basket and finished the contested layup. North Dakota's (10-11, 6-4 BSC) Leah Szabla turned the ball over following the inbounds, fouling senior guard
Apiphany Woods in the process. Woods headed to the line with just under three minutes remaining, sinking both and cutting UND's lead to three, 57-54.
North Dakota ran the shot clock down to under five seconds, and Big Sky preseason player of the year Mia Loyd missed a three, giving ISU the ball with 2:27 remaining. ISU worked the clock and junior guard
Brooke Blair knocked down a three with two minutes remaining to tie the game 57-all, capping a 7-0 Bengal run and erasing UND's seven-point lead. The following two minutes left the Bengals scoreless, paving the way for the Fighting Hawks victory, 60-57.
In the final 3:44, Idaho State gave up six offensive rebounds to the Fighting Hawks, and the Bengals were outrebounded 28-19 on the night including 12 to 5 on the offensive glass.
"I think North Dakota was tougher than us," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "They deserved to win. They did a great job coming up with offensive rebounds the last minute-and-a-half. We were able to force them to miss shots, but we couldn't secure the rebounds. I think that was just a reflection of a lot of long stretches throughout the game where we didn't apply the right effort on defense and we weren't tough enough."
Despite shooting nearly 50 percent, ISU struggled defensively as UND shot 47.9 percent for the game including an even 60 percent during a decisive third quarter. Coming out of the break, ISU gave up 20 third-quarter points to the hot shooting Fighting Hawks, which gave UND a five-point cushion heading into the final 10 minutes.
The Bengals were led by Blair, Woods and senior forward Anna Policcichio all finished in double-figures for the Bengals with 14, 13 and 12 points respectively. Junior forward
Lindsay Brown led ISU in rebounding with five.
North Dakota finished with two players in double figures, led by Szabala with 12. Loyd led the Fighting Hawks in rebounding with a game-high seven.
The Bengals are back in action Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. against visiting Northern Colorado at the ICCU Court at Reed Gym.
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