RENO, Nevada — At the outset of the first game of the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball tournament, a smattering of about five-dozen observers watched at the mostly empty Reno Special Events center. A collection of the observers had come from halfway across the globe to take in the action.
The Idaho State junior guard was understandably nervous at the outset of her team’s first-round matchup against Northern Colorado. The native of Aukland, New Zealand had a collection of family members from the other side of the world in town to see her perform.
ISU guard Brooke Blair
Blair hit the first shot of the game but her eighth-seeded Bengals made just three of their first 13 shots. Once Blair and ISU locked in, they made one spurt to take the lead then controlled the action in dominating fashion en rout to a 54-45 win over ninth-seeded Northern Colorado.
“At the start of the game, I was very nervous with the whole atmosphere,” said Blair, a transfer from Northeastern (Colorado) College. “Once I got a few shots up, I was warmed up and I was good. It’s fun to play with big crowds but it’s different for me to play in front of my family. I wanted to play well in front of them.”
Idaho State converted 8-of-11 second-quarter field goals to take a 23-20 lead to halftime then used an 11-0 run that included four points each from Blair and senior center Anna Policicchio to take a double digit lead it would not relinquish.
“In the second half, we did a great job of controlling the game,” ISU eighth-year head coach Seton Sobolewski said. “We slowly built a lead, got the stops we needed to get and defending really well. We contested the outside shot really well. They’ve been a really hot team lately from the perimeter.”
ISU forward Tressa Lyman blocks a UNC shot
The Bengals, known as one of the Big Sky’s most physical teams, used their bruising style to hold UNC to 34.8 percent shooting. Northern Colorado’s motion Princeton found no flow as ISU closed out on shooters and limited touches for the Bears’ perimeter-oriented scoring attack.
“Idaho State man-handled us,” said Northern Colorado head coach Kami Ethridge, who’s team finishes 2016 13-16. “We didn’t adjust like we needed to. We had mismatches and couldn’t take advantage of them. That’s been our problem all year. We can’t handle physical play. This was the nail in the coffin for what we couldn’t overcome this season.
Less than a week ago, UNC hit 13 3-pointers in an upset win over top-seeded Montana State. On Monday, junior Kourteny Zadina, UNC’s co-leading scorer along with sophomore Savannah Scott, did not take her first shot until two minutes left in the game. Scott scored all five of her points in the game’s final 100 seconds and finished with five points.
“Physical play doesn’t slow us down if you have players that don’t mind getting man-handled a little bit. But we have too finesse of a team,” Ethridge said. .”That’s what we inherited when we walked in here. I think this offense can work if you have people who can play off the bounce better. We don’t quite have the players.”
Blair converted 8-of-16 from the floor and scored a game-high 21 points. Policicchio chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds and played her trademark physical, lane-clogging defense throughout. After taking a 12-7 lead in the first quarter behind all 10 of Savannah Smith’s team-high 10 points, nothing came easy for the Bears as Policicchio and her teammates were able to put consistent, physical pressure for the duration.
ISU forward Anna Policicchio
“The tournament is exciting no matter what,” Policicchio said. “I’m just trying to have fun, work hard and see how far we can take it. Today, we got our feet wet, dug in and did what we were supposed to do.”
Idaho State (16-14) will play top-seeded Montana State at 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday. Idaho State took the first-place Bobcats down to the wire in Bozeman two weeks ago before falling 82-80 in overtime. MSU sophomore Delany Junkermier hit two 3-pointers in the final 8.5 seconds of regulation to push the game to overtime.
“We are just excited to play anyone in the second round,” Policicchio said. “This win gives us a little extra energy. Hopefully, we can get the momentum on our side from the beginning. We match up well but they are a good team. It’s going to be a good game. I’m excited for it.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
