Devon Burningham
Sports Writer
The Idaho State University women’s basketball team played two games inside Reed Gymnasium against Montana State on Thursday and Montana on Saturday last week.
The game against Montana State seemed to hold some promise at the beginning with ISU scoring the first points of the quarter. However, the score quickly began to favor Montana State after a hot offensive streak that put them up, 38-23, at half-time.
At the start of the third quarter, it seemed like the Bengals would go on a run to come back into the game. The offensive firepower of the Big Sky Conference’s leader in Montana State, however, was too much to handle as a 60-37 lead at the end of the third quarter proved enough cushion against the Bengals.
“We really played out of character tonight,” said head coach Seton Sobolewski. “Maybe we looked a little bit like this at the beginning of the year, but defensively we didn’t look very good, offensively we had no chemistry.”
The Bengals led the fourth quarter in scoring, but inevitably lost the game, 74-55. ISU shot a poor 36.5 percent from the field overall and were outrebounded 41-27, allowing the Bobcats to secure 31 defensive rebounds.
Idaho State looked to recover from Thursday’s loss when they faced Montana on Saturday. Right from the tip, ISU seemed to find their lost identity as they kept pace within the first quarter, ending with a two-point lead.
The lead extended for the Bengals as even more of the team’s shots fell while their opponents’ shots were stagnant. Going into halftime, ISU had a seven point edge and full control of the game.
It seemed as if the lead was a little too sweet, though, as a surge of points from Montana tied the score up at 37. The Bobcats scored 25 points to ISU’s 18 in the third to tie the game before the fourth.
“[Montana] really wanted to play harder,” Sobolewski said. “Defensively, they did a really good job on us.”
The Orange and Black ensured that was as close as Montana was going to get as they played the best quarter of the game. Scoring a game high 27 points in the fourth while simultaneously holding the Bobcats to only 14 points, ISU claimed a 72-59 victory at the buzzer.
Offensively, the team was led by Dora Goles’ incredible performance as she scored a career-high 36 points on 10 of 17 shooting. The renowned, suffocating, in-your-face defense helped lockdown a very important win against a team so close in the conference rankings. Montana Oltrogge snagged 11 rebounds and Ellie Smith had three blocks.
“I’m happy about bouncing back after Thursday,” Sobolewski said. “[We were] playing with better effort and execution.”
The Bengals will hit the hardwood again against Weber State on Thursday, Feb. 20 in Reed Gym at 7 p.m.
