Box Score PDF
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Idaho State women's basketball team dominated Portland State 88-59 Thursday evening for its 13-straight win over the Vikings. The Bengals were on fire from the field, shooting a season-high 61.2 percent including a season-high 61.1 percent from three.
"We want to play the game with excellence," Head Coach
Seton Sobolewski said. "We want to all be on the same page. We got a little loose toward the end of the game where we weren't on the same page. We were playing a little bit independent. We want to be a good team down the road; we want to be a team that all five people on the road are on the same page and every player on the bench is on the same page. We want to play well together. So that was the big lesson taken out of this game."
Idaho State (11-6, 3-3 BSC) finished with four players in double-figures led by senior guard
Brooke Blair with 20 for her fourth 20-point effort this season. Blair also finished with a game-high seven rebounds and a game-high tying five assists. Sophomore guard
Estefania Ors and junior forward
Grace Kenyon both added 15 points each while sophomore forward
Sai Tapasa finished with 10.
The Bengals showcased a solid defensive effort, limiting Portland State (9-8, 3-3 BSC) to 59 points, 15 points below its season average, on 31.8 percent shooting. ISU also limited PSU's two highest scorers, Sidney Rielly (19.6 ppg) and Ashley Bolston (18.3 ppg), to just six and seven points respectively.
Through the first two quarters, ISU shot 57.7 percent from the floor for 38 points while limiting the Vikings to 26 points on 28 percent shooting. However the Vikings were able to keep the game close with a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the charity stripe. Idaho State led by 15 points (38-23) with 2:20 remaining in the half but a PSU trey with one minute remaining cut the lead to 12, 38-26.
The Vikings twice cut ISU's lead to single digits in the first three minutes of the third period, but a trey from Blair at the 6:52 mark sparked a 10-0 Bengal run over the next 1:33 to put ISU up by 19 (51-32) with just over five minutes remaining. Idaho State never looked back, pouring in 50 second-half points to offset a season-high 28 team fouls and 21 turnovers for the 29-point win, 88-59.
"[Our defensive effort] was really good tonight, and sometimes we fouled them before they could score," Sobolewski said. "They shot a lot of free throws. We didn't do a great job of keeping our hands off, and we did some silly things. It's nice to be pumped up and play hard, but you've got to take care of business; you can't foul that much."
Portland State was led in scoring by Kiana Brown with 19 points while Savannah Dhaliwal added 10.
Idaho State continues play on the road at Sacramento State Saturday, Jan. 20 at 3 p.m. MST.
