(For a feature story on Ashleigh Vella and Kaela Oakes click here)
Since the season began, the Idaho State women have been on a fast track, dumping the role of the favorites along the way and adopting the underdog mentality instead.
The Bengals didn’t have a choice after stumbling out of the starter’s block of the conference season 1-3 and looking like anything but the team that steamrolled through the Big Sky Conference the year before on the way to a championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament.
With nearly the entire roster back — though it was noted that replacing the five-year veteran, Chelsea Pickering, was no easy task — assumptions from the outside were heaped on Idaho State in the preseason to the point that it seemed like the Bengals would never lose again.
But they did.
And at times this year — a last-second loss at home to Northern Colorado, an overtime killer at Eastern Washington — the journey back to today’s game, the opening round of the Big Sky tournament, had a few more potholes than expected.
That underdog role, though, that’s something the Bengals are not afraid to embrace.
“We’re at a place where we’re much more relaxed and we’re playing better basketball,” said head coach Seton Sobolewski. “As we usually do, we’re playing better in the underdog situation where we’re trying to come back.”
Idaho State may play its best when accepting the role of a darkhorse but don’t call the Bengals a longshot.
Since that 1-3 start, ISU has gone 12-4 in the Big Sky and the trademarked Sobolewski lock-down, drag-out, punch-the-opponent-in-the-face defense that carried Idaho State to its third Big Sky championship has steadily improved along with the win-loss record.
The Bengals have the No. 1 scoring defense and only Montana — the top seed and host of the tourney — outscores its opponents by more points per game.
“Last year, we felt like the underdogs for one reason or the other,” Sobolewski said. “The other team we were playing was just bigger or more experienced or the previous champs or whatever. There was always this picture of them being the underdogs because I think they play better in that role.”
Even tonight, Sobolewski and the Bengals will likely find a way to spin the narrative that they’re the ones fighting to prove themselves against their first round opponent, the Sacramento State Hornets.
Idaho State beat Sac State in both meetings this season, quite handily 12 days ago in Reed Gym, smacking the Hornets 70-41 over the last 31 minutes after falling behind early.
But, oh, how can perspectives can shift in less than two weeks.
Following that win, ISU had rollicked to three-straight double-digit wins and was within striking distance of the postseason’s No. 3 seed. But the Bengals lost in overtime in Cheney, junior starting forward Cydney Horton is not available for the Big Sky tournament and Sac State is coming off two of its biggest wins of the season.
At home in the aptly named Nest, the Hornets rained in 18 3-pointers in two wins against Montana State and Montana.
“Montana tried to run with them,” Sobolewski said. “And if you’re not making as many shots as they are, if you’re not rebounding at the same level, if you’re not taking care of the ball at the same level, if you’re not getting to the free-throw line as much it’s a tough game if you’re going to play fast with them.”
The Lady Griz were not at full strength — starting guard Torry Hill hurt her shoulder the game before against Northern Arizona and key reserve Shanae Gilham is nursing her knee — but it might not have mattered.
Stepping of the bench, Natasha Torgerson — Sac State’s eighth-leading scorer — bombed in five 3-pointers on her way to 22 points in 25 minutes.
That’s the danger with the Hornets. They attack from all angles and do it as fast as they can.
Idaho State has handled Sac State’s full-court pressure and relentless playing style through the first two matchups. Does familiarity breed confidence or is the Hornets’ offense — held 16.5 points per game below their season average by the Bengals — bound to erupt against ISU eventually?
“We make adjustments and corrections whether we win or lose against anybody,” Sobolewski said. “We don’t just assume because we beat someone before that there isn’t something we can learn from that game.”
The prize for winning, for either the Bengals or the Hornets, is a day off until Friday’s semifinal matchup. Typically, the tournament takes place in three days, but like the women, the Montana men earned the right to host, too.
So a wrinkle has been added to the mix. Play Wednesday, the winners advance to play Friday and two see the light of day for Saturday.
For every team except the host Lady Griz, it’s an apparent advantage to have Thursday off.
“To win the championship game, if you’re lucky enough to make it that far, you don’t have to win three games in three days,” Sobolewski said. “Now you’ve got to win two games in two days. ... It ... negates the top team’s advantage.”
Bad for Montana, but good for the likes of everyone else. Whether it’s enough to help the Bengals over the invisible hump that has seemingly barred their ascent back to the top of the conference is the mystery.
“It’s an exciting time of the year,” Sobolewski said. “This is kind of what the whole season is for, to prepare yourself for the post season, to get as good a seed as you can get, to see if you can play your best basketball towards the end of the year.”
NOTES: Under Sobolewski, Idaho State is 3-3 in the Big Sky tournament and 2-2 in its opening round games. ... Horton, who started 21 of the 27 games she played in this season did not travel with the Bengals to Missoula, Mont. A statement from the univerisity wrote, “Cydney Horton will be unavailable for the 2013 Women's Big Sky Conference Tournament. ISU head coach Seton Sobolewski and the Idaho State Athletic Department will have no further comment on Horton's status.”
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