Taylor Meeks
Sports Writer
The Idaho State University men’s and women’s basketball teams traveled to Boise on Mar. 11-16 to compete in the Big Sky Conference tournament for a chance at the championship title. Unfortunately, both teams were defeated in their first games.
Fresh off an upset win against No. 1 University of Idaho in Moscow, the women’s team looked good going into the tournament. ISU was the No. 3 seed and clinched a first-round bye with its regular season overall record of 20-9 and BSC record of 15-5. On Tuesday night, the Bengals faced off with No. 6 seed Eastern Washington, who had defeated Weber State in the first round the previous night.
ISU dominated the first three quarters of the game and commanded a 12-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. After 13 unanswered points, EWU slashed the lead to tie the game. With only seconds left, ISU had an opportunity to win the game in regulation with one more shot from the field, but the ball hit off the rim and sent the Bengals into overtime for the first time this season.
“I feel like I could have made that, and I think my team trusted me too,” senior guard Saylair Grandon said. “I just wish I would have put a little more into it. I think, because it was tied too, that we were still pretty optimistic for the rest of the game.”
ISU jumped ahead in overtime with a four-point lead and held strong until under two minutes left. With just 1:43 to go, EWU gained their first lead of the entire game.
The Bengals shot one last time at the buzzer, but the potential game winning shot just missed off the rim. ISU suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss, 67-65, to conclude a solid conference season.
“This is kind of a thing that happens with our team sometimes,” head coach Seton Sobolewski said. “Our intentions hurt us sometimes. We want to do so well, we want to play so well, we want to make sure we win, we have all these people we feel counting on us, and it makes us play out of character sometimes or makes us play tight. I think that was part of our struggles in the fourth quarter.”
Junior guard Estefania Ors led the team in scoring with 18 points. Grandon contributed 11 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Senior Grace Kenyon and redshirt-junior Sai Tapasa both equally committed a combined 24 points and 10 rebounds.
The men’s team entered the tournament as the No. 10 seed and battled Wednesday afternoon against No. 7 seed Southern Utah. The Bengals split conference matches with the Thunderbirds, taking them down 88-68 in Holt Arena and then losing 78-72 in Cedar City.
ISU held their own for the majority of the first half, shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 55.6 percent from the arc. At the half, they had a 41-40 lead on SUU.
The game remained close for the first five minutes of the second half, but after a 21-7 run made by the Thunderbirds, they led the game 72-59. The Bengals tried to claw their way back into the game, got within four, but couldn’t quite close the gap, losing to SUU 94-80.
“Southern Utah did a nice job at both ends of the floor,” head coach Bill Evans said. “They are well coached, they played hard. I am proud of my guys, they made a great effort as well. We just didn’t play quite as well as our opponent.”
Junior Alonzo Walker led the team in scoring and rebounds with 17 and six, respectively. Senior Sam Dowd was the next leading scorer with a season-high 12 points in just 15 minutes.
Though the 2019 season was over for the men’s team, the women’s team earned an at-large bid to the WNIT tournament for the fifth time in program history and battled against Arizona. After giving the PAC-12 team a fierce fight, ISU lost 66-56 to conclude the basketball season.
“I feel like this team is my family,” Ors said. “The four seniors are my sisters. They taught me the core values of the team, so it’s going to be hard next year without them.”
