Taylor Meeks

Sports Editor

The Idaho State University women’s basketball team had a successful weekend of home matches inside Reed Gymnasium on Thursday and Saturday against Big Sky Conference opponents.

On Thursday night, Idaho State faced off with University of Northern Colorado (9-10 overall, 5-5 Big Sky) for the first time this season. The Bengals took a commanding lead early in the game which led to a blowout victory, 59-39, over the Bears. The game marked head coach Seton Sobolewski’s 200th win with Idaho State.

“It’s tough to think about because it just goes by really fast,” Sobolewski said about the milestone. “I feel lucky that I’ve even got to coach 200 games. There are a lot of people who don’t get the opportunity that I get, and I feel very fortunate.”

Callie Bourne led Idaho State in scoring with 16 points and tied with Dora Goles for most rebounds at six. Montana Oltrogge had a team second best of 11 points.

The Bengals shot an overall 41 percent from the field while holding the Bears to just 28 percent. The team also shot a season-high 67 percent (6-9) from the three-point arc to UNC’s eight percent (1-13).

Idaho State played its second home game of the weekend on Saturday afternoon in a rematch against Southern Utah University. The first meeting between the two teams was an intense battle in Cedar City, Utah that led to an unfortunate 72-65 overtime loss for the Bengals.

The second go around proved a different outcome for Idaho State as it collected its second blowout game of the weekend, 73-54, over the Thunderbirds.

“We lost in Cedar City, and it was just a mission that we have to beat them, especially because we lost in overtime,” Goles said. “It just gave us a different mentality, even more toughness and will. We just wanted to win so bad. It was our game. We weren’t going to lose this one.”

The game started with two administrative technical fouls against Idaho state allowing SUU to shoot two free throws that put them up, 2-0. However, this was the first and last time that the Thunderbirds commanded the lead as the Bengals went on an unanswered 10 point run just three minutes into the first quarter.

ISU extended its lead to as much as 13 points in the first quarter, shooting 68 percent (10-15) from the field and 57 percent (4-7) from beyond the arc. The momentum continued into the second quarter as the Bengals led by as much as 17 points two different times and closed the half out with a 39-24 edge over SUU.

“We just wanted to simplify,” Sobolewski said. “We made some mistakes in Cedar (City) with trying to ice and switch. We made too many mistakes, so we just decided to simplify it and take our chances defending the post with someone smaller.”

Coming out of halftime, Idaho State didn’t give an inch to SUU, outscoring them 22-15 in the third quarter. The Bengals shot 56 percent (9-16) from the field and 50 percent (2-4) from the three-point line as compared to the Thunderbirds 45 percent (5-11) shooting from the field and 40 percent (2-5) from the arc.

Any speck of hope for SUU was quickly washed away in the fourth quarter as Idaho State cruised to a dominating 27-point lead with just under four minutes of play time left. The Thunderbirds wouldn’t come any closer than 19 as the Bengals took the victory, 73-54, at the buzzer.

Goles led the squad in scoring with 20 points with four rebounds. Tomekia Whitman came next with 12 points and five rebounds. Callie Bourne contributed a game high seven rebounds along with 10 points of her own.

“(The bench) is being more comfortable in knowing what to do,” Sobolewski said. “You have to put them through the fire a little bit for them to learn and see what they have to do better.”

Idaho State outrebounded the Thunderbirds 39-29 and created 18 assists as compared to SUU’s four assists. The Bengals also forced 14 turnovers. The win over SUU gave Sobolewski an overall 201-163 record and advanced the team to 10-10 overall and 6-5 in Big Sky play.

ISU is on the road this week as they play Northern Arizona University on Thursday, Feb. 6 in Flagstaff. The last time the Bengals saw the Lumberjacks was in a home contest in which they fell, 70-59.

“After you play someone once, especially if you lost, you can learn from your mistakes and make adjustments,” Sobolewski said. “You have the upper hand in that situation. If you lost, you know what adjustments you’re going to make now, and they don’t.”