Nov. 12, 2009

Game Notes: Saint Mary's and California

Pocatello, ID--Idaho State women's basketball opens its season with a tough start on the road against Saint Mary's and No. 18 California. The Bengals matched up against the Gaels last season but it will be ISU and Cal's first meeting. Idaho State will be both Saint Mary's and Cal's season openers after each team has played an exhibition game on its home courts. ISU opens its season on Friday, November 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the McKeon Pavilion. The Bengals will then travel to Cal on Sunday, November 15 for a contest beginning at 5 p.m. at the Haas Pavilion.

Live stats will be available for both contests at the home sites main athletic web pages. All of Idaho State's road games will be broadcast by KISU 91.1 FM broadcast by play-by-play announcer Mark Liptak. Fans can also access through a web link on ISU's athletic web page.

Idaho State's coaching staff is back in business for its second season after leading the Bengals to an 11-20 season and a Big Sky semifinal appearance at the 2009 conference tournament. Last season was Seton Sobolewski's first year as a head coach and he led ISU in its 11th Big Sky tournament appearance and a near upset over Montana at Dahlberg Arena in the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament. Associate Head Coach Angela Munger was promoted to her position after the 2008-09 season.

The Bengals ended the 2008-09 season with a loss to Montana, but the strides they made in that game showed a solid effort by the team. ISU was reduced to an eight deep bench midway through the season due to injury. The team suffered a 70-48 loss at Montana and a 73-39 loss at home after their bench size had been reduced. The Bengals fought back in the semifinal tournament as they led the Griz by 11 points in the half and held Montana to a two-point lead with 4:55 remaining before being overcome at the free-throw line for a 70-56 loss.

Idaho State has three seniors on the team, two of which were regular starters for the Bengals. Oana Iacovita and Devin Diehl were regular starters for ISU in the forward and guard positions respectively. Andrea Videbeck is coming off a redshirt season. Videbeck competed for Idaho State in the 2007-08 season and played for Chandler Community College and Fresno State previously.

Idaho State returns three Bengals who started for Idaho State: Iacovita, Diehl and Chelsea Pickering before her ACL tear at Montana State ended her season. Diehl started in all 31 games for ISU while Iacovita started in 30 contests. Pickering made 14 starting appearances before her injury.

Iacovita was named to three all-tournament teams including the Big Sky All-Conference team where she posted the game-winning shot against Sacramento State with .6 seconds left in overtime to advance the Bengals to the semifinals. Iacovita averaged 13.2 points and 7.1 rebounds last season while recording a .455 field goal percentage.

Diehl averaged six points and 3.5 rebounds. She recorded four double-figure shooting games and scored a career-high 17 points against Southern Utah last season. She posted 11 blocked shots, the third most on the team. Pickering's injury came midway through the season, just two games after a career-high performance where she posted 31 points against Portland State. The 5-9 guard averaged 10.4 points per game, and 15 in conference play. She also recorded 3.6 rebounds per game.

Idaho State Women's Basketball

Idaho State also welcomes seven highly touted freshman including three with the same name. Luckily there are some differences between the players as they all spell their names differently: Ashlee Rigter, Ashley Smith and Ashleigh Vella. Differences don't stop there as all three players come from different countries. Rigter is from New Zealand, Smith is from the U.S. and Vella is from Australia. Also, all three players are brunettes. Luckily Ashley Smith goes by the nickname A.J. which cuts down on any confusion. This will also be a help as Saint Mary's has a forward named Ashlee Smith.

Saint Mary's returns 13 lettermen and four starters to the court including Louella Tomlinson who averaged 5.4 blocks per game for the second best mark in the NCAA and helped her team become the leading team in the NCAA with 7.1 blocks per game. Saint Mary's ended the season with an 11-19 record and went 7-7 to tie for fourth in the West Coast Conference. The team posted a 78-55 victory over Chico State in an exhibition game where Tomlinson led the Gaels with 14 points while Jontelle Smith and Ashlee Smith chipped in 12 and 10 points respectively. The team shot 41.1 percent for the game and was consistent throughout.

Saint Mary's leads the series 5-1 with the Gaels capturing the last meeting 75-71 at Reed Gym during the pre-conference season last year where Oana Iacovita was one of three Bengals to post double-figures in points with ten. Saint Mary's is on a five-game win streak with the Bengals only victory occurring in the team's first meeting. ISU defeated Saint Mary's 79-39 during the 1981-82 season. ISU's toughest loss to Saint Mary's was a 101-79 defeat during the 1994-95 season in the team's second meeting of the season.

California returns five lettermen and three starters to a team that finished its season in the Elite 8 Round of the NCAA National Tournament. Cal posted a 27-7 record and tied for second in the regular season of the Pac-10. California ended the 2008-09 season ranked No. 19, this season they are ranked 18th in the preseason AP Division I Ranking.

Cal was selected to finish second in the Pac-10's preseason coaches' poll. The team defeated Vanguard 101-81 in its exhibition game at Haas Pavilion. The Golden Bears had five players in double-figure points with DeNesha Stallworth recording a game-high 21 points. Cal hit 48.7 percent for the game. Brenna Heater was the only player in the game to record double-figures in rebounds posting 17 for the game and 11 on defense alone.