Women's Basketball Showed Mettle against BYU Saturday Evening

POCATELLO, Idaho -By Bradley Bugger for Idaho State Athletics

 When Brigham Young University brought their women's basketball team to Reed Gym Saturday night, it brought back a lot of memories.

"What a fantastic atmosphere tonight," said Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski  after BYU held off the Bengals, 77-68, before a crowd of 2,133 fans.   "I don't remember it being that good since the 2012 (Big Sky) championship game where we hosted. It was a really, really fun college basketball atmosphere."

While in truth, many of those fans were wearing BYU colors and cheering on the four Idaho-born Cougars, there was still plenty of Bengal fans in the house and they had their share of things to get excited about as well.

"There were so many positives," said Sobolewski. "We kept the turnovers down (12), we had 17 assists – we shared the ball really well. We played a good offensive team and defended them pretty well."

Riding the red-hot shooting of point guard Sophia Covello, the Bengals were able to emerge from the third quarter tied with the 3-0 Cougars at 54-all. But then BYU's superior size and rebounding power took over.

"Probably the difference in this game came down to free throws and offensive rebounds," noted Sobolewski.

The Cougars had 15 offensive boards which they converted into 19 second chance points – outscoring ISU by 12 in that category.

The Bengals, meanwhile, might have kept the game close all the way to the finish if they had shot free throws more efficiently. ISU finished just 12 of 20 from the foul line -- 60 percent --  and sophomore forward Piper Carlson missed all five of her foul shots.

The Cougars rode the back of freshman point guard Delaney Gibb, who came into the game averaging over 19 points a game, but was held largely in check in the first half by the ISU person-to-person defense. The 5-foot-10 native of Raymond, Alberta, Canada found her groove in the second half, however.  

"Gibb showed just how good she is," Sobolewski noted. "Only seven points in the first half, but she winds up with 22."

Covello, the 5-foot-9 redshirt junior from Roseville, Calif., continued her evolution as a reliable long-distance marksman. She came into the game hitting 50 percent of her three-pointers in ISU's first three contests – five of ten. She then proceeded to drain her first five attempts from beyond the arc Saturday night, and finished five of seven with 19 points.

"She was fantastic," Sobolewski said of Covello.  "She's going to go as far as her confidence goes. She's a good shooter, a really skilled player, very smart – the kid is very smart. Hopefully this is something we can build on."

Despite heading into the final period tied with BYU, the Bengals continued to struggle shooting the basketball in the fourth quarter. After going four for 17 in the fourth quarter against San Diego State, they were four of 13 vs. the Cougars.

Emma Calvert, BYU's big 6-foot-4 center, added 16 points and seven rebounds, and Amari Whiting, the former Burley High School star, had another double-double – her second against ISU in the last two seasons, with 11 points and 10 rebounds – including four offensive.

For the Bengals, wing player Kacey Spink provided her usual outstanding all-around performance – "Kacey being Kacey" Sobolewski described it, finishing with 11 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

Forward Nika Lokica, who missed Monday's game with San Diego State because of a hip flexor issue, "came in and made some big plays offensively," Sobolewski said. She finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Forward Halle Wright had a couple of big three-pointers on  her way to a 12-point performance for the Bengals.

"We actually made some good in-game adjustments," noted Sobolewski, "and that's the sign of a team maturing. You can have all these great ideas, but then can your team execute them? We did some of those things, which was good to see."

Sobolewski was also able to get some playing time for guard Tasia Jordan, who was ISU's leading scorer last season, but missed the last half of last year and had not played yet this season recovering from  a knee injury. Jordan scored two points and had two rebounds in 7:33 of playing time in the first half.

"We've got to get her up to speed," said Sobolewski. "She's missed a lot of practice, she's been out a lot. I felt like it was good to get her in there in the first half a little bit, but with the intensity level of that game, I wasn't quite ready to put  her in that type of situation (in the second half). But we're going to keep working on it, getting her more reps and getting her up to speed."

The loss dropped ISU to 1-3 on the season. They host Westminster College on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Reed Gym.