Dec. 8, 2008

Complete Women's Basketball Game Notes: Boise State and Utah Valley

Quickly
The Bengals come off a six-point margin loss to Mountain West's Wyoming, who finished third in their conference last season, as ISU heads back on the road. Idaho State will travel to Boise State on Wednesday, December 10 at 7:05 p.m. in the Taco Bell Arena. ISU will then travel to Utah Valley to compete on Saturday, December 13 at 3:05 p.m. in the McKay Center. The Bengals are 3-6 on the season with a 1-3 away and 1-2 neutral record for a 2-5 record on the road. Idaho State will only play two matches at home of their first 11 games.

About Idaho State
ISU continues to be productive behind the arc as they are ranked 56th in the nation for three-point field goals per game with 6.6 per game. Not only can they shoot from a distance, but they can also guard from a distance as the Bengals are ranked 40th in the nation for three-point field goal defense with 0.248, the Bengals highest ranked position in a class for the team. Junior Oana Iacovita is the only Bengal ranked as an individual. Iacovita is ranked 81st in the nation for rebounds per game with 8.9 as of November 30th. She is currently at 9.1 rebounds per game, while averaging 12.6 points to average nearly a double-double. It hasn't been an easy schedule for the Bengals either as they have competed against #18 New Mexico and #49 DePaul, as well as #129 Loyola Marymount. Idaho State is currently ranked at 240 in the rpi ratings. The Bengals shoot with 36.8 percent accuracy from the field going 186-for-506 and are 59-of-175 for 33.7 percent accuracy from the arc.

Career Best Week for Pickering
Sophomore Chelsea Pickering had back-to-back career setting games last week. Pickering started off the week with a career-high 13 points against Montana Western. She was 5-for-9 from the field (55.6%), going 1-for-2 from the arch. She hit both of her free throw attempts and had two assists. Pickering also recorded three rebounds, two on offense, and recorded two steals in 24 minutes. Three days later Pickering trumped her own career-high with 19 points, of which she could have done in the second period alone as she scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half. Her 19 point game was against Wyoming and was the game-high as well. Pickering went 6-of-11 (54.5%) from the field and 2-for-3 (66.7%) from the arc in the second half alone. Pickering was 8-for-19 (42.1%) from the field and 2-for-5 (40%) from the arc. She hit one of two free throws and recorded three assists. She also had three rebounds, two on offense, and recorded three steals over 36 minutes. Overall, Pickering averaged 16 points over the week and three rebounds. She was 13-for-28 (46.4%) from the field and 3-of-7 (42.9%) from the arc. She recorded five steals over the weekend and five assists in total.

Recent Play
Idaho State posted a 1-1 record at home in their first two games at Reed Gym this season. The Bengals look to be a home court advantage team as they ended the weekend out scoring their opponents by solidly overcoming Montana Western and holding Wyoming to just a six point lead. ISU was better from the field hitting 51-of-113 (45.1 percent) to its opponents 45-of-116 effort (38.8 percent) and dominated from the arc as ISU nearly posted 50 percent accuracy from the outside going 13-of-29, while its opponents struggled with just 9-of-33 (37.3 percent).

The Bengals did a better effort at crashing the boards on defense 46-44 rebounds, but still fell shy on the offensive rebounds 27-20. Idaho State did improve on turnovers dropping five few than their opponents. The Bengals matched Montana Western and Wyoming combined on steals with 17 and was better from the free throw line, when they were able to get there, missing only three all week. However, even though ISU hit 88.5 percent of its free throws to their opponents 68.8 percent, ISU got to the line six fewer times. The Bengals also experienced their second half of play this season without seeing the free throw line.

Don't Foul Her... Brown
Speaking of the free throw line, senior Jenna Brown is on a roll from the charity stripe. Over the season she has recorded 28-of-33 (84.8 percent), but has hit every one of her last 21 attempts. Brown last missed a free throw in the second half against Alcorn State on November 17 during the Basketball Travelers Tip-Off Tournament and has gone six games without a missed free throw.

Iacovita Doubles Up
Junior Oana Iacovita leads the Big Sky Conference in double-doubles as she has recorded four alone with Nicole Scott of Eastern Washington. Scott and Iacovita have both posted double-doubles against solid teams. When you combine the point totals and rebound totals for the players, Iacovita edges out Scott with 17 more points and six more rebounds. Altogether Iacovita posted 69 points and 48 rebounds in double-double figures while Scott posts 52 points and 42 rebounds.

Senior is Good For Three Michelle Grohs leads the Big Sky Conference in three-point percentage among seniors in the Conference with a .486 percentage. Also, when compared to the top junior and sophomore of the conference, she also beats them as well.