Denim Millward
Sports Editor
After a reasonably successful 2012-2013 season, the ISU women’s basketball team said a bittersweet goodbye to five different senior players.
Included in the group of departing players were the top two scoring options for the Bengals, seniors Ashleigh Vella and Kaela Oakes.
As is the case with every other consistently winning college sports team in the nation, rebuilding years interspersed between successful seasons happen. Unfortunately for the Bengals, the 2013-2014 campaign appears to be one of those seasons.
The Bengals find themselves with a 5-10 overall record and 3-3 in Big Sky conference play. Even considering the sizeable offensive production that departed along with the group of seniors, the position head coach Seton Sobolewski’s squad finds itself in is a disappointing step back from where the Idaho State women’s team is used to being after half a season.
The Bengals have gone from outscoring opponents during the 2012-13 campaign by an average of nearly six points, to being outscored by almost seven points this season.
Though underachieving may be partly to blame for this result, an incredibly tough schedule and a grueling nine-game road trip have undoubtedly played a big part in ISU’s struggles thus far.
Included on the merciless road trip were powerhouse programs Oklahoma State (currently ranked eleventh in the country,) Iowa, Utah State and Boise State.
The Bengals went nearly two calendar months without playing in front of their home fans, topping Carroll College Nov. 11 and not playing in Pocatello again until January 9, when the Bengals lost a heartbreaker to the University of North Dakota 48-47.
Seniors Lindsey Reed and Jessica Tingey have done a more-than-respectable job replacing Vella and Oakes’ offensive production, averaging 14.4 and 11.9 points per game, respectively.
Reed has been a clear team leader on and off the court, and is leading the Bengals in assists with 3.7 per game.
Tingey has been the anchor of the Idaho State front court, and leads the Bengals in rebounding with 6.8 per contest. Coupled with her 11.8 points per game, good for second-best on the team and the only Bengal aside from Reed to average double digits, Tingey has as good an argument as anyone for midseason MVP.
Junior guard Rebecca Schrimpsher has provided valuable long-range shooting, leading the Bengals in three-point percentage at just under 33 percent.
Sault Ste. Marie, Canada native Anna Lee Policicchio has shown numerous flashes of promise throughout the season. Though her 6.6 points and 4.6 boards per contest may not jump off the page, the sophomore forward, affectionately referred to as “Cheech” by her teammates, has consistently worked hard and played well. Having two more years of the Canadian is definitely a good thing for the Bengals.
Despite the subpar first half of the season, Idaho State’s season is far from over.
With approximately half their remaining games at home, all of them conference games, the Bengals have ample opportunity to make up plenty of ground in the conference and they don’t have as much ground to make up as one might think.
As of the writing of this article on Jan. 20, the Bengals are only three games out of first place, with a single game separating Idaho State with Eastern Washington, currently in third place in the Big Sky Conference.
The majority of remaining games are against teams ahead of ISU in the conference standings. While this makes the schedule more difficult, it also gives the Bengals a better opportunity to gain ground on teams ahead of them.
Barring a significant turnaround, the Idaho State women’s basketball team appears to be on the way to its first losing season since the 2008-2009 team went 11-20.
Even though the amount of wins Coach Sobolewski and his players have become accustomed to may be in short supply, the effort certainly isn’t.
This squad may end up a bit short on the amount of success they’ve been aiming for, but rest assured, there is no shortage of heart.
