The first day of the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball tournament commenced in Boise, Idaho on March 7, 2022 at Idaho Central Arena.
The first day of action featured three games: No. 8 Northern Colorado against No. 9 Eastern Washington, No. 7 Sacramento State against No. 10 Weber State and No. 6 Idaho against No. 11 Portland State.
THE RESULTS
No. 8 Northern Colorado 64, No. 9 Eastern Washington 45
The Bears parlayed the momentum of sweeping Montana and Montana State during the final weekend of the regular season to post a wire-to-wire victory over an Eastern Washington team that went 5-5 the last 10 games before the tournament.
The matchup pitted two of the five first-year head coaches competing in their first Big Sky Tournaments in UNC’s Kristen Mattio and Eastern Washington’s Joddie Gleason. Several players on the Bears are holdovers from last year’s squad that advanced to the Big Sky semifinals before the abrupt and unexplained departure of head coach Jenny Huth in the off-season, including senior Allie Downing and Alexis Chapman.
Downing scored a game-high 14 points and Chapman added 11. Junior Kurstyn Harden, who was named third-team All-Big Sky on Monday, had 13 points and 13 rebounds while Hannah Simental, a sophomore who was named second-team All-Big Sky earlier in the day, finished with 11 points.
Jaydia Martin, a freshman wing, led Eastern Washington with 14 points as EWU finished Gleason’s first season with a 9-21 record.
BOX SCORE
Northern Colorado advances to take on No. 1 seed and two-time defending Big Sky regular-season champion Idaho State, the Big Sky Tournament champion a year ago.
Idaho State and Northern Colorado split during the regular season, with UNC winning the most recent matchup 53-52 on February 17 in Greeley, Colorado.
ISU beat Northern Colorado 65-55 in the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament last season.
No. 10 Weber State 74, No. 7 Sacramento State 64
The seeding indicated the result was the first upset of the tournament. In fact, Weber State earned its third straight victory over Sac State this season.
Weber got Sac State’s All-Big Sky center Izzy Natabou into foul trouble early and used her sitting on the bench to dominate the battle of the boards.
Jadyn Matthews grabbed 13 rebounds, Emma Torbert added 12 to go with her 15 points and WSU won the battle of the glass in decisive fashion, 37-24.
Daryn “Monk” Hickok was tasked with guarding Lianna Tillman, the league’s leading scorer (20.5 points per game) and assister (6.1 dimes per game). Hickok made the recently anointed Big Sky MVP work all game. Tillman finished with 23 points and four assists, but missed all seven of her 3-point attempts and needed 25 shots to get her points.
Aloma Solovi scored 20 points while Torbert and Kori Pentzer each added 15 points for the Wildcats, who won a Big Sky Tournament game for the first time under fifth-year head coach Velaida Harris.
Sac State cleaned up in the all-league awards as Tillman won MVP and Natabou was second-team All-Big Sky as a freshman in head coach Mark Campbell’s first season.
Natabou finished with 10 points and six rebounds but was only available to play for 24 minutes.
Campbell’s first year at the helm ends with a 14-16 overall record.
Weber State advances to face Montana State, the second seed in the tournament after finishing 14-6 in league play. The Wildcats and the Bobcats split with WSU winning the matchup in Ogden before New Year’s Day and Montana State winning in Bozeman.
No. 6 Idaho 75, No. 11 Portland State 52
In the third matchup between the two teams since February 28, Idaho once again had its way against Portland State’s zone defense.
During the 2019 Big Sky Tournament, the Vikings used a similar defensive scheme to derail one of the great shooting teams in Big Sky Conference women’s hoops history, beating a UI team led by the “Splash Sisters” of Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce, two of the most prolific shooters in NCAA women’s hoops history.
Monday, Idaho poured it on for the first 30 minutes before cruising into the quarterfinals. Tiana Johnson, a transfer from Sac State who prepped at Kalispell Flathead High, got to wherever she wanted, scoring 14 of her 18 points as UI mounted a 43-23 lead at halftime.
Louise Forsyth, a former Gonzaga transfer, poured in a team-high 20 points as four Vandals finished in double figures. Allison Kirby scored 14 points and dished out seven assists while first-team All-Big Sky forward Beyonce Bea had 12 points and 16 rebounds about a week after pouring in 40 points (a league season high) against PSU.
Portland State’s season ends with a 4-23 record including 21 straight league losses.
The Vandals advance to play No. 3 Southern Utah. The Thunderbirds finished 13-7 in league play, their best in their 10-year history in the league.
