ISU women get first win

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kang@journalnet.com

Seton Sobolewski insisted he didn't give the Idaho State women's basketball team any rah-rah speeches at halftime. Nor did the Bengals do anything differently in the second half against Alcorn State on Monday.

For some reason, they just relaxed, and it immediately showed. The Bengals blistered the Lady Braves in the second half with a torrent of 3-pointers and a career-best performance by junior post Oana Iacovita for a 67-50 comeback win at The Pit at The University of New Mexico.

The win, Sobolewski's first as Idaho State's head coach, helped the team earn third place in the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. Iacovita doubled her career high in scoring with 22 points on 7-for-11 shooting, and she chipped in 11 rebounds as well.

"I'm extremely proud," Sobolewski said by cell phone. "It was just our effort staying positive, just relaxing and playing."

Idaho State (1-2) trailed 27-24 at halftime, in part because of 14 turnovers that Alcorn State (0-3) turned into 17 points. Things could have been worse had the Bengals not ended the half on a 6-0 run.

Sobolewski credited their sloppy start to nerves. Alcorn State had lost by much larger margins to DePaul and New Mexico than Idaho State had, and he sensed his players were apprehensive about possibly losing a game they should win.

Sobolewski said they ran their offensive sets more efficiently in the second half, leading to more open shots. The Bengals blitzed the Lady Braves with five 3-pointers in the first 5:15 of the half to go on a 15-6 run and capture a 39-33 lead. Chelsea Pickering, the only other Bengals to score in double digits with 10 points, hit two of those, and Jenna Brown, Devin Diehl and Michelle Grohs each added one.

"When you get the opportunity to knock down your shot, you knock it down," Sobolewski said. "Those were the open shots that we got out of the offense. It was just a matter of being positive and being confident."

Alcorn State trimmed the lead to two points with 7:10 remaining, but Iacovita refused to let Idaho State surrender the lead. Over the next four-plus minutes, she scored all 11 of the Bengals' points -- including hitting a 3-pointer -- and helped pad their lead to 56-50. Idaho State, which shot just 62.1 percent (18-for-29) from the free-throw line, still managed to ice the game from the stripe from there.

Iacovita's previous career high was 11 points, which came in March against Northern Arizona. She topped that Monday with 16 points in the second half alone.

"She created a lot of her own stuff," Sobolewski said. "It makes you feel a little bit more comfortable as a coach when you have someone to go to when you need a basket and they can get it for you."

By Kelvin Ang

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