Montana
Idaho State
Bengals get rare win in Missoula, 58-51
1/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2012
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Kaela Oakes scored a game-high 18 points and had the game's key basket -- a left-handed runner in the lane with just over a minute to play -- to lead Idaho State to a 58-51 win over Montana Saturday afternoon at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula. The win was the Bengals' second victory in Missoula in 36 tries.
Idaho State (11-5, 3-0 BSC) also knocked off Montana State Thursday night. Coupled with Sacramento State's 68-58 loss at Northern Colorado Saturday afternoon, the Bengals end the second week of league play as the Big Sky Conference's only unbeaten team.
Montana (8-7, 1-1 BSC) had its four-game winning streak snapped.
In a matchup between the Big Sky Conference's top two defensive teams, it was Idaho State that generated the necessary offense to pick up its rare road win.
The Bengals took a 29-26 lead at the half and never gave it back, though Montana twice cut the lead to one and had multiple possessions in the closing minutes while trailing by a single basket.
ISU built its largest lead of the game, 12 points, when Ashleigh Vella made it 42-30 with a jumper in the lane with 14:00 remaining.
Montana and the crowd of 3,090 got the spark they needed with back-to-back 3-pointers from Kellie Cole and Alyssa Smith that cut the lead to 42-36.
The lead would hover between one and five points the final nine minutes of the game, until a pair of ISU free throws with 20 seconds left pushed the lead to seven and iced the win.
Twice Montana cut the lead to one, and both times Idaho State answered on its next possession.
Kenzie De Boer, who would finish with a game-high 16 points, made it 44-43 with just over seven minutes to play on a cut to the basket and feed from Torry Hill. A Vella jumper seconds later made it 46-43.
Kellie Cole, who scored a season-high 15 points, made it 52-49 with a jumper at the 2:59 mark and 52-51 with another jumper in the paint with 1:36 to go.
Oakes had the ball at the top of the key on Idaho State's next possession and finished a left-handed runner under pressure with the shot clock running down and the game clock at just over a minute.
Still in a one-possession game, Montana turned the ball over with 53 seconds left, and a pair of free throws by ISU's Chelsea Pickering, who reached 1,000 career points in the win, put the Bengals up five, 56-51, with 33 seconds remaining.
Montana's desperation three was off the mark, and Oakes's two free throws with 20 seconds left provided the final margin.
The game was expected to be in the 50s, and it played out accordingly. Neither team shot better than 37 percent in either half, with Idaho State finishing at 35.3 percent, Montana at 33.3 percent.
The Bengals did their best defensive work in the post. Katie Baker, Montana's leading scorer, was held to two points, the lowest scoring game of her career. UM's four interior players were limited to six points on 2-of-16 shooting.
De Boer and Cole combined for 31 points, and Torry Hill and Alyssa Smith both added six points. In the end it wasn't enough.
"The game probably lived up to its billing," UM coach Robin Selvig said. "It was a hard-fought defensive struggle, and they out-struggled us.
"We had a chance to beat a good team today because we held them to 35 percent, but we didn't shoot well enough.
"It came down to who made a couple of plays in the last two minutes. They did, and we didn't."
Idaho State, which returned five starters this season, is leading the Big Sky Conference after two weeks of games despite scoring just 57, 59 and 58 points in their three league wins.
The Bengals are making up for their lack of scoring on the defensive end. Northern Colorado, which fell, 57-52, Montana State, which lost 59-58, and Montana shot a combined 31.3 percent in their losses to ISU.
Four of Idaho State's starters played more than 30 minutes Saturday, and its five starters scored 57 of the Bengals' 58 points.
Oakes finished with 18 points and four assists, with Vella and Pickering each adding 12. Vella also grabbed eight boards and had three blocks and three steals.
The most indelible memories for Montana will be missed opportunities that stalled and ultimately derailed its comeback. Three times in the final minutes the Lady Griz had uncontested shots near the basket and couldn't finish.
"We actually made some nice plays down the stretch and missed really good, close shots," Selvig said, his tie loosened and hair mussed up to complete his postgame, tight-loss, disheveled look.
"We finally came back from the dead, but this was a game with stretches where we couldn't score. They finished it off with a couple of shots that we didn't."
De Boer was fantastic in the loss, a favorite for anyone who appreciates all-out effort, all game long. She reached double digits for the seventh time in eight games and was a major reason Idaho State turned the ball over 19 times.
De Boer picked off five steals and even went a perfect 6 for 6 from the line to extend her streak of consecutive free throws to 24, a streak which dates back to a first-half miss in Montana's loss at Gonzaga Dec. 11.
With Montana's posts struggling to score, Cole came off the bench to break free of her own shooting woes at just the right time. She entered the game shooting 29 percent for the season and had gone 3 for 17 the three previous games.
Saturday she went 6 for 13 overall and 2 for 4 from 3-point range to score 15 points and help give Montana a 20-1 advantage in bench scoring.
But outside of De Boer and Cole, no one else scored more than six points.
Montana will host Northern Arizona (5-10, 0-3 BSC) and Weber State (2-14, 0-3 BSC) next Thursday and Saturday. The Lumberjacks host Eastern Washington Saturday night. The Wildcats lost at home to Portland State Saturday afternoon, 66-56.
