20 Years Later: Idaho State’s Undefeated Big Sky Champions

If you asked an Idaho State sports fan to name the biggest moments in Bengal athletic history, it’s likely they’d say the football team’s national championship in 1981, followed closely by the men’s basketball team beating UCLA in the 1977 NCAA tournament. But if you were pressed to name the No. 3 moment on that list? How about Feb. 27, 2001.

On that Saturday afternoon, ISU alum and Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila broke the women’s world pole vault record, clearing 15 feet 5 inches before 7,000 fans at the Simplot Games in ISU’s Holt Arena. That evening, the ISU women’s basketball team clinched its first Big Sky Conference basketball championship by completing an undefeated home season and downing Montana State, 69-58, before a record crowd of 3,011 fans in Reed Gym.

The win over the Bobcats was a coronation for a Bengal team that flushed more bad history than the 2016 Chicago Cubs. ISU was in the midst of a 21-game winning streak that had electrified the community, led to four straight single-game attendance marks, and carried the Bengals to their first appearance in the NCAA tournament. And coach Ardie McInelly’s crew kicked down the door to Big Sky success that the Montana Grizzlies had so jealously guarded since the advent of conference-sanctioned women’s basketball. 

“Since we were no longer there, ISU has done very well,” reflected McInelly, who moved on to coach at the Air Force Academy following that 2000-01 season. “Maybe what we did helped Idaho State grow into a good women’s basketball program… We laid the groundwork, the foundation, and there have been good coaches who have come after us that have done a great job.”

Until the McInelly regime showed up in Pocatello four years earlier, no one had been able to build a consistently competitive women’s basketball program at ISU. It was left to McInelly, a fiery former Boise State point guard and Idaho native, to convince recruits and her inherited players that they could be successful in Pocatello. Perhaps the depth of her challenge was illustrated by a quote from Montana State forward Jessica Blake, who was recruited to Bozeman from Shelley, Idaho, just up the road from ISU. “I didn’t want to go to Idaho State because of Pocatello,” Blake told the Bozeman Chronicle in early 2001.  “It’s like an industrial town turned college.”

McInelly and her coaching staff had to overcome the blue-collar image of Pocatello, a lack of facilities that led to 5 a.m. practices for a couple of years, and a history bereft of success, and they did it, largely, through force of personality.  Ashley Toner-MacNeal, one of the key pieces on that championship team, remembers her first meeting with McInelly and assistant Lynn Andrew. “I grew up always going to the Boise State camp, and I wanted to go to Boise State,” said the Burley native. “When Lynn Andrew and Ardie came to my house, I was sold on Boise State. But after they left, I remember turning to my parents and saying, ‘I’m going to Idaho State!’ I felt like they really cared about their players.”

“The instant thing Ardie brought in was the belief we could win,” said Angela Munger-Rivera, who played point guard for McInelly, and then moved to a graduate assistant role with the championship team. “She gave people the belief and the confidence that everything we were doing was going to lead to wins, instead of, ‘Oh, it’s Idaho State, how can we recruit here?’ We never saw that side of her, it was just that optimism that we could get it done.” 

Landing Toner, who was one of three Bengals named to the all-conference team in 2001, was big, but the most impactful recruit was undoubtedly Mandi Carver, a lithe, 6-foot-2 forward who immigrated to Pocatello from Dillon, Montana, of all places. Carver, the Big Sky’s Most Valuable Player in 2001, might have been the biggest recruiting mistake of legendary Montana Coach Robin Selvig’s illustrious career. 

“We liked the way she ran, the way she could rebound,” said McInelly. “We knew we had to put some weight on her, but she had a lot of upside. She had a beautiful shot, she could go inside or outside. We were very, very lucky to get her here.”

Carver, like Toner an Idaho State Athletic Hall of Famer, shrugged off the lack of offers from her home state schools. “I never really wanted to stay home and go to school,” said Carver, who played professionally in Europe for 7 years and now is an assistant coach for the Fresno State women’s team. “That never really appealed to me. My high school coach was friends with the assistant at Idaho State and she sent them a video. I visited and had Angela Munger as my host. I loved it. It fit what I wanted to do athletically and academically.”

Toner and Carver, who averaged a combined 25.6 points and 14.6 rebounds between them, gave Idaho State a formidable front line. Idaho native Sarah Nelson was the third all-conference player on that team, lending her ability to hit big shots, while leading ISU in three-point shooting at 42 percent. Chris Urbanski was ISU’s most prolific three-point shooter at the other wing, hitting 54 treys on the season, including the game-winner against Brigham Young University that launched the 21-game winning streak. The Griffin twins, Janae and Jennifer, from Douglas, Wyo. provided the ability to penetrate and crowd-stirring hustle plays. Jessica Law filled a key role as the first “big” off the bench. 

McInelly, coming off Big Sky Coach of the Year honors the season before after finishing tied for second in the Big Sky at 11-5, could sense the 2000-01 team had something special very early on. “During the individual workouts and in pre-season, I could see that we had some really good players, and we put together a great staff,” said McInelly. “Looking at Montana, Montana State and Weber State, I knew we could match up with these people. We got lucky a few of those games, but the players were just determined…we just kept grinding and grinding, and the players kept getting better every day. We felt like this was our year.” 

Despite that confidence, ISU got off to an uneven start – winning their first four home games, but losing their first four contests on the road. Then came the BYU win, which turned everything around. The game was the first-part of a Holt Arena doubleheader with the men’s team playing Westminster afterward. BYU came in 7-3 on the season, having already lost to Montana and beaten Weber State. ISU roared out to a 31-17 halftime lead, but the Cougars got 22 second-half points from Erin Thorne and Heather Cheesman, ISU went scoreless for about four-and- a half minutes, and BYU led by a point going down the stretch.  On the Bengals’ last possession, Carver set a screen for Urbanski, who nailed a three pointer from the top of the key with one second left to give ISU the 58-56 win.

“I was very, very confident,” the Oregon native told the Journal after the game. “One defender flew by me and everything opened up. I thought, ‘Oh, it’s right.’” 

Little did anybody associated with the ISU program know that the Bengals would not lose again until the NCAA tournament. “It started with that BYU game,” recalled Toner-MacNeal, now a middle school teacher and athletic director in Kuna. “It just kind of sparked something in us. We all had very defined roles, we accepted our roles, and as we rolled through conference, we thought, ‘We can take on these people.’ Gradually as we went through conference, our confidence gained.” 

But the Bengals knew if they were going to win a championship, they were going to have to exorcise their Montana demons.  Heading into the Feb. 18-20 road trip to Missoula and Bozeman, Idaho State was a combined 1-43 in Montana, their only win coming in Bozeman the season before. 

“I think it was the first time we weren’t intimidated by them (the Montana schools),” recalled Carver. “We went into the game with the mindset that they have to stop us. That hadn’t been the case before.”

Playing against her home state schools had always gotten a rise out of Carver, and she rose to the occasion in Missoula that championship season. She put up 24 points and had 14 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the year as ISU held off the Griz 67-62. Toner added 16 points, and she and Carver scored ISU’s last 12 points.

Montana hadn’t lost a Big Sky home game since 1992 – a 54-game win streak. They were a combined 125-3 against Big Sky opponents in Dahlberg Arena. ISU hadn’t beaten Montana anywhere since 1988, suffering 37 straight losses.

“It’s a special day for me,” McInelly told the Journal afterward. “It’s been (like) 20 years since Idaho State beat the Griz. This is a big win. But we’ve got a lot of season left. We’ll get back to work tomorrow morning.”

The Bengals finished their first ever sweep of the Montana trip two nights later, edging Montana State 71-66, behind the Griffin twins, who combined for 33 points, including 10 for 10 from the free throw line. Against the Griz, it was the front line that carried the Bengals; against, the Bobcats, it was the guards. By this time, it was obvious to everyone that Idaho State was a complete team. 

The Pocatello community, which had scarcely noticed that ISU had a women’s team a few years ago, also was taking notice. On Feb. 16, the Idaho State Journal carried a front-page story titled, “ISU basketball on a first-time roll – Go Bengal Women,” with a photo of some of the adopted “grandparents” from the booster program that McInelly and her staff started to provide support for her players. In the same edition, an editorial titled, “Bengal women deserve our support, get out and see an ISU women’s basketball game” urged locals to catch up with a team now on a 13-game winning streak as the two Montana schools were coming to town. “The Bengals are playing the best women’s basketball ever witnessed in Pocatello,” the editorial read. “They’ve certainly got the spirit.  This weekend, with attendance records there for the breaking, how about you?”

The community responded, and so did the Bengals, although it was a struggle. A record crowd of 2,714 showed up at Reed Gym to see ISU edge Montana again, 56-53. The Bengals trailed 31-24 after shooting just 29 percent at half. With the scored tied at 44, Janae Griffin hit a floater, Toner scored in the paint and Carver hit a jumper to put ISU up by six. ISU then missed the front end of two one-and-one free throws and the Griz made it a one-possession game. But Carver turned a missed free throw into a tipped offensive rebound for a teammate with six seconds left and ISU hung on for the win. 

The Big Sky was experimenting with back-to-back games in those days, so after ISU held off the Griz on a Friday night, they had to take on MSU the following night. With Holt Arena turned into a track venue for top high school athletes from around the West and Dragila’s showcase, the Bengals returned to Reed Gym to host the Bobcats. ISU increased its single game attendance record by another 400 fans, and guaranteed itself a spotless home record and the right to host the Big Sky post-season tournament for the first time with a 69-58 win over Montana State. Janae Griffin went on a personal 10-2 run, including back-to-back treys, to put ISU up by 14 with 8:06 left. MSU held Carver and Toner to 24 points combined, but the ISU guards put up 39. 

Dragila’s world record performance followed by the record-setting crowd for the women’s game and their first Big Sky championship made for a festive feeling in the Gate City – especially for Idaho State’s female athletes. “Talk about a very powerful day for women,” remembered Munger-Rivera, now an associate athletic director at USC. “There was a record crowd of people in Pocatello backing a women’s team, and then you have Stacy’s performance. What an awesome day for women.” 

Idaho State had successfully dispatched the two Montana powers, but there was one more impediment lurking out there, and ironically, it was the school that sent McInelly to Idaho State. McInelly was an assistant to Weber State’s Carla Taylor when ISU Athletic Director Irv Cross began looking for a new women’s basketball coach. Taylor urged McInelly to pursue the job, and took it upon herself to call Cross and strongly recommend her assistant for the job. Now four years later, McInelly’s program was on the cusp of its first ever undefeated conference season, but there was her mentor standing in the way.

Taylor’s Wildcats, led by 6-4 center Crystal Howe, finished only fifth in the Big Sky that year. But WSU gave Idaho State three of its biggest challenges, losing to the Bengals by four and three points in the regular season, and in the Big Sky tournament semifinals, by a single point on a missed layup late in the game. 

“The thing with Weber …  it was almost like you were playing yourself,” remembered Munger-Rivera. “There was a built-in rivalry, even more so for us knowing Ardie had come from there… The programs were built from the same foundation. What I remember about Weber was the physicality, knowing they were well-coached by CT (Taylor), and you knew they were going to bump the cutters, bang you on the boards and pound it in the paint.”

ISU overcame a 9-point second—half deficit and held off the Wildcats, 63-60, in Ogden on March 1 behind a combined 42 points from Carver and Toner. The Bengals then easily dispatched Sacramento State to end the regular season on a 19-game winning streak, tied with Penn for the longest in the nation. Now came the hard part – beating two good teams for the third time in a season, and getting to that first NCAA tournament. 

Idaho State had qualified for the Big Sky post-season tournament four times under McInelly, but the Bengals had little success, with a 1-4 mark in the post-season. Certainly, this was McInelly’s best team, but Montana’s Selvig, who had coached four Grizzly teams to undefeated Big Sky championships, did his best to insert some doubt in the Bengal ranks. 

“They’re a great team,” Selvig acknowledged. “Their big strength is they have no weaknesses. But they’re a team that hasn’t dominated. Everybody would like another crack at them.” 

Weber State got the first crack and the Wildcats almost ended the Bengal dream season prematurely. Weber led 22-10 early after the Bengals made just 3 of their first 16 shots. ISU climbed back to tie the game, but Wildcat Kristen Clyder-Gardner, who had 19 points on five made treys, had a chance to put WSU up late when she missed a point-blank layup with five seconds left. Janae Griffin rebounded the miss for ISU and was fouled with 2.1 seconds left. Griffin made one of two free throws and ISU hung on by their fingernails, 56-55. 

“I’m still trying to simmer down,” Griffin said after the game. “My heart was really pumping.”

“They finished and that was the difference,” noted Weber’s Taylor. “They were finishers and we weren’t.” 

During the semifinal contest with Weber, Idaho State had set yet another single-game attendance record, and there was every expectation they would break it again for the championship game against Montana, who had knocked out Montana State in the other semifinal. Before the championship, Munger-Rivera and fellow graduate assistant Holly Togiai wandered out onto the floor and took note of the fans filling up the stands in Holt Arena. 

“Holly and I used to laugh, as big as Holt Arena was, you’d look around before a game and you felt like you were alone,” said Munger-Rivera. “The boyfriends would be there, a few family members and significant others, those who were working the game, and that was it. Walking into Holt Arena for that championship game, I remember Holly and I talking about, ‘Do you remember when there were 50 people here?’ Once we got people in there, when people find a good product, it’s something worth watching.” 

Another record turnout, this time 5,028 fans, filled Holt Arena that night of March 10, 2001 to see the completion of an historic season. The fans and the Griz got an up-close look at the “monster” zone defense McInelly borrowed from ISU men’s assistant Louis Wilson, a scrambling zone that McInelly kept under wraps until the conference season began. A strictly person-to-person team in years past, the zone caught conference opponents off guard at the beginning of conference play, and helped ISU lead the league in fewest points allowed (57 ppg). 

“The monster” held the Grizzlies to 34 percent shooting, and ISU outrebounded Montana 48-29, including 23 offensive boards. And they put a stake in the heart of the Montana dynasty, 68-59, behind Carver’s 16 points and 7 rebounds. Carver was named tournament MVP, and she was joined on the all-tourney team by Toner and Nelson. 

The Bengals had an NCAA tournament watch party the next day at the student union, where they found out they had earned a No. 14 seed, and would be playing No. 3 seed Vanderbilt on the Commodores’ home floor in Nashville in the first round. Mike Greenfield, a Sports Illustrated analyst, gave ISU a 10.5 percent chance to beat the Commodores, who were ranked 11th in the nation. ISU came in at No. 79. 

The Bengals did a pretty good job of holding down 6-6 all-SEC center Chantelle Anderson and hung with the Commodores for a bit, but Vandy shot 63 percent from the field and outrebounded ISU 29-14, on the way to an 83-57 win. Chris Urbanski had a career-high 20 points, including 6 treys, for the Bengals, who finished the season 25—5.  

 

“What an experience,” said McInelly afterward. “We ran into a buzz saw.” 

After the season, McInelly took the Air Force job, and the next season was a nightmare, with ISU dismissing her successor in mid-season. From that point forward, however, the ISU women’s team has been one of the most competitive in the Big Sky, winning conference championships under coaches Jon Newlee and Seton Sobolewski. 

“My time at Idaho State can never be matched,” said McInelly, who coached Air Force for 9 seasons and is now retired and living in Colorado. “I loved every moment of it. I thank the people in Pocatello, the administrators, the players, it was pretty special.

“I went to Air Force because it was another challenge,” she continued. “I thought I could change it like I did at Idaho State. We did change some things, but it was a whole different ballgame… Do I have regrets?  I don’t. But I always wonder, ‘What if?’  But I’ve grown as a person, and I’ve helped some kids grow along the way.” 

As have the players on that program-defining championship team. It’s hard for many of them to believe it’s been 20 years since they ended the Montana dynasty, set attendance records that still stand, and put the ISU women’s program on the foundation that has made it one of the best in the Big Sky, year-in and year-out.

“My most enduring memory was accomplishing something special with amazing women,” said Carver. “Every March we can all say we were a part of the Madness, and we were the first to do it at Idaho State.”  

Idaho State University has acquired the full Championship game footage and will be holding a special watch party on the Idaho State Athletics Facebook page on Sunday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. (MST). Fans will be able to watch the game and chat with one another as the Bengals take on the Griz for the Championship!

2000-2001 Idaho State Women’s Basketball Team

Record: 25-5 overall, 18-0 in Big Sky Conference play, regular season and post-season tournament champions, 15-0 at home, 21-game winning streak.

Roster: Ashley Anderson, Tiffany Williams, Laraine Skow, Chris Urbanski, Krissy Sowder, Jennifer Griffin, Jessica Law, Sarah Nelson, Janae Griffin, Lindy Whitley, Yolanda Banks, Ashley Toner, Mandi Carver, Camber Perrigan.

Coaches: Ardie McInelly, head coach; Lynn Andrew and Steph Spencer, assistant coaches; Holly Togiai and Angela Munger, graduate assistants. 

Big Sky Players of the Week: Sarah Nelson, Jan.15; Mandi Carver, Nov. 22, Feb. 5 and Feb. 19; Ashley Toner, March 5.

All-Conference Selections: Mandi Carver (Player of the Year); Sarah Nelson, Ashley Toner. Coach of the Year: Ardie McInelly.

Big Sky All-Tournament Selections: Mindi Carver, Sarah Nelson, Ashley Toner.

Big Sky Academic All-Conference Team: Ashley Anderson, Jessica Law, Sarah Nelson, Krissy Sowder, Chris Urbanski.