Women's Basketball | 11/4/2017 11:32:00 PM
POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State women's basketball team dropped its season-opening exhibition contest to visiting Northwest Nazarene 95-87 in front of a rambunctious crowd of nearly one thousand Saturday evening at Reed Gym.
Sophomore guard Estefania Ors led all scorers with 29 points while junior guard
Grace Kenyon finished with 20 and senior guard
Brooke Blair added 17 in her first game back in nearly a year. Sophomore forward
Sai Tapasa finished with a game-high 12 rebounds with nine points, while junior guard
Saylair Grandon dished out a game-high four assists.
"Any loss I'm pretty concerned about," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "I think, today was an example of, we couldn't do anything right."
Despite shooting nearly 50 percent from the field for the entire game, Idaho State struggled to get into any sort of offensive rhythm in the early period. The Bengals missed four layups in the opening period and were unable to disrupt the Crusaders who tallied 24 points including five second-chance points in the first. The difference proved to be Northwest Nazarene's bench, as it poured in 17 of the Crusaders' first-period points.
In the second period, ISU was outscored 29-22 to give NNU an 11-point lead, 53-42.
"We've got to be better than this," Sobolewski said. "We've got to rebound better and defend better."
The Bengals chipped away at the Crusaders' lead, coming within five points three times in the third and fourth periods. With 8:26 remaining in the fourth, Ors sunk two free throws to bring ISU within five, 71-66. However NNU went on an 11-2 run over the next 3:04 to put the lead up to double-digits. Idaho State was unable to close the gap and fell 95-87.
"We've been excited about working on our offense and playing a little faster," Sobolewski said. "We shot almost 50 percent from the field tonight and scored 87 points, and we should be pumped about that. But I think we've gotten away from focusing on the things that made this program really good for so many years, and that's defense and rebounding and being tough."
Northwest Nazarene was led by Raquel Jardine with 24 points while Lexi Tubbs finished with 22. Marina Valles and Avery Albrecht also finished in double-figures with 16 and 10 respectively.
Idaho State hits the road to officially open the 2017-18 season with games at Seattle and at Washington. The Bengals face Seattle Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. MST followed by Washington on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. MST.
