The Bengals held off a late Weber State surge to earn its seventh conference victory and ninth victory in a row.
The game started a little tough for the Bengals. After Estefania Ors hit a layup with 7:22 to go in the first, to give the Bengals a 10-9 lead, the Wildcats went on an 11-0 run that that wasn’t broken until Montana Oltrogge hit a second-chance layup with two minutes to play in the quarter.
The Bengals took advantage of the momentum going on a 7-0 run in the final two minutes capped by Ors’ three pointer with a minute left to cut the Weber lead to 20-16.
If the first quarter was an example of a bad defensive effort for the Bengals, the second period was the complete opposite.
In the final 10 minutes of the half, the Bengals held the wildcats to three-of-16 shooting from the floor and only eight points. The Bengals offense capitalized during the period scoring 22 points wild going four-of-five from behind the three-point line.
The Bengals took a 38-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The third quarter saw the two teams fight back and forth with the Bengals edging out the Wildcats 15-12. Tomekia Whitman led the team in the third with five points, going two-of-four from the floor.
The Bengals showed their defensive strength at the end of the period. With 22 seconds left and a last shot attempt, the Bengals held off Weber State and denied them a field goal at the end of the period.
The Bengals took a 53-40, 13-point lead into the final 10 minutes of the game. The two teams went back and forth with the Bengals keeping the lead to around nine points before Weber surged at the end of the game.
With 2:15 to play in the game Weber made a layup and drew a foul, after hitting the free-throw the Bengal lead was cut to four point 60-56.
As they have multiple times this season, the Bengals didn’t blink as a team came charging. The defense held on the Wildcats next possession and then coming down the court, Ors hit a three pointer to give the Bengals a seven-point lead with 1:13 left.
With their only option left but to foul, the Bengals hit their free throws at the end of the game to keep it out of reach and secure the Bengals 69-63 victory.
Ors led the Bengals with a 20 points on six-of-eight shooting going two-for-two from the three point line, a perfect six-of-six from the charity stripe. After tonight, Ors has passed Andrea Lightfoot for second place all-time in Idaho State scoring.
Three other Bengals scored in double digits. Oltrogge, Whitman scored 11 points and Diaba Konate ended with 13.
The Bengals won the battle on the glass 39-34. Ellie Smith led the team with nine rebounds including six offensive boards. Whitman added eight boards to her stat line.
As a team, Idaho State shot 40.7 percent from the floor on 24-of-59 shooting. The Bengals had a strong three point game shooting nine-of-19 for 47.4 percent.
The Bengals are back home Saturday, Jan. 22 as they host Southern Utah in Reed Gym. Follow along at ISUBengals.com to keep up with the team.
