Idaho State women finish regular season with costly home loss

POCATELLO — With a win Monday, Idaho State would have finished the regular season in third place. The Bengals, though, could not handle a Sacramento State team they beat by 15 in Sacramento and slid into fourth place.

The Hornets were led by Rubi Gray, who scored a game-high 24, in an 85-72 victory at ISU’s Reed Gym.

Rather than opening the Big Sky Basketball Championships as the 3-seed, facing Eastern Washington, the Bengals will go in as the 4-seed and start their “Starch Madness” run will begin against the same Sac State team, in Sunday’s noon game.

ISU finished the regular season with a 12-6 conference record (19-10 overall), its best since winning the regular-season title in 2021-22.

The Bengals were paced by Alyse Aby, who scored a team-leading 20 points off the bench, and Piper Carlson, who also came off the bench and finished with a double-double — 11 points and 10 rebounds.

After falling into an early hole, Sac State reclaimed the lead for good on a Gray 3-pointer with just over five minutes left in the first quarter. The Hornets began to pull away late in the first, and started the second quarter up 12. The Bengals cut into that deficit in the second quarter, heading into halftime down just nine, but lost the third and fourth quarters, as the Hornets secured the Big Sky tourney’s 5-seed and a first-round rematch with ISU.

Carlson (11) and graduate student Tasia Jordan (15.1) finished the regular season as the only Bengals to average 10 or more points per game. Carlson was also ISU’s leading rebounder, grabbing 8.1 per game, while senior Kacey Spink did a bit of everything for the Bengals. Spink finished the season averaging 9.5 points and 7.2 rebounds while leading the team in assists (4.0 per game) and steals (3.1).

Men’s basketball

The ISU men’s team also concluded its regular season against the Hornets, losing 83-65 in Sacramento.

They finish the season with a 5-13 conference record (12-19 overall), in ninth place in the Big Sky Conference. The Bengals will battle Northern Arizona in Saturday’s Starch Madness play-in round, with the winner moving on to face top-seeded Portland State.

Grad student Connor Hollenbeck (13.2) and senior Caleb Van De Griend (11.8) were the Bengals’ leading regular-season scorers. Grad student Jamison Guerra was a productive point guard, averaging 3.9 assists to go with 9.3 points per game while shooting 42% from 3-point range.

The Bengals split their two games against Northern Arizona this season, with the road team winning each by single digits.