POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State Defense dazzled as the Bengals blew out the UNC Bears 63-42 in Greeley, Colorado, Saturday afternoon.
The Bengals took a 4-2 lead off of a pair of free throws early in the first quarter and never looked back, holding the lead to the finish.
The Bengals move to (7-6, 2-0 BSC) and the Bears drop to (8-5, 1-1 BSC) to start Big Sky Conference play.
Going into the game, the Northern Colorado Bears averaged 70 points per game. The Bengal defense took control early and at the final buzzer, the Bengal defense held the Bears to 28 points below their season average.
In the second quarter, the Bengals held the Bears to six points and in the final period of the contest, UNC was only able to score five points on the Bengal defense.
The five points allowed in the second was a season's best for the scrappy Bengal defense.
For the Bears both Simental and Fields averaged double-digit scoring and the Bengals held them to 10 and one point respectively.
For the Orange and Black, Laura Bello terrorized the Bears in the paint, scoring 19 points and grabbing nine boards.
The Bengal seniors, Callie Bourne and Finley Garnett, both scored in double-digits again this game with 14 for Garnett and 12 for Bourne. On the weekend the pair averaged 34.5 points per game combined for the team.
After averaging 20+ turnovers per game, the Bengals put it together against the Bears, only giving up eight on the game and taking advantage of UNC turnovers, scoring 19 points off of 17 UNC turnovers.
The Bengals shot 40.9 percent from the floor while holding UNC to just 28.8 percent. From three the Bengal defense had it locked down, holding the Bears to just 15.4 percent from deep.
Idaho State now leads the all-time series 25-13 and hold a commanding 13-5 record in Greeley.
Next week, the Bengals are back home in Reed Gym, Saturday, Jan. 7 as they host the Weber State Wildcats. Tip is set for 2:00 PM and there will be full coverage of the contest with an ESPN+ broadcast and the call on KISU 91.1 FM.
