Bobcats Win Battle with Vandals, Move on to Title Game

Wednesday, March 9

Boise, ID (Idaho Central Arena)

8 p.m.

Montana State University

21-12,14-6Big Sky

Idaho

14-18,11-9Big Sky

Idaho

Montana St.

Photo by: Brooks Nuanez

3/10/2022 12:44:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Winning time in basketball games usually means knocking down important shots, and Montana State did some of that in the team’s 73-67 Big Sky Conference Tournament Semifinals win over Idaho in Boise on Wednesday.

By: Bill Lamberty

Winning time in basketball games usually means knocking down important shots, and Montana State did some of that in the team's 73-67 Big Sky Conference Tournament Semifinals win over Idaho in Boise on Wednesday.

But the important work came at the other end of the floor.

Trailing 56-55 entering the fourth quarter, with Idaho shooting 49% to Montana State's 35%, Bobcat coach Tricia Binford and her staff made a couple of small adjustments. "We put Gabby (Mocchi) on Beyonce Bea. She was giving us fits and Kola was in foul trouble and I thought Gabby did an incredible job there. And we talked about staying home more on the shooters."

Bea, Idaho's All-Big Sky forward who scored 18 points in the first half and four more in the third quarter, didn't score in the fourth. Montana State limited the Vandals to 4-15 shooting and kept Idaho off the free throw line and forcing six Vandals turnovers.

Binford said, even more than the adjustments, her players just got the job done. "I thought the kids just clamped down (on defense in the fourth quarter). They wanted it super badly, and they played like it."

The bracket said semifinals, but the game had the intensity of a title tilt. Idaho shot better (43% to 37%) and hit more three-pointers (11 to 9) than the Bobcats, and out-muscled MSU 43-39 on the boards. But the Bobcats defensive effort forced 21 Vandals turnovers, while MSU gave the ball away just six times.

While Darian White played her usual balanced game, scoring 16 points with five rebounds, four assists and two steals, she had plenty of help. KJ Limardo led the Cats with 17 points and had three steals, Leia Beattie scored 16 points and grabbed five boards, and Kola Bad Bear scored 15 points with three boards and four steals.

Three of Limardo's four three-pointers came after halftime, and she scored 14 points in the last two quarters. She said her ability to knock down important shots stemmed from her own hard work and her teammates' belief in her. "I kind of went back to all the times I was shooting in the gym over the last couple of years," she said. "I knew that in a game like this I wasn't going to back down. I had my teammates' backs, I had my coaches' backs, and they believed in me to shoot the ball, and that's what I did."

The game was a back-and-forth affair from the beginning. The Bobcats pushed out to a 14-4 lead five minutes into the game, and MSU led by four at the end of the first quarter. Idaho scored the nine points of the second quarter, and eventually held its own 10-point lead, 35-25 with 4:06 to play in the half. The Cats answered, closing the half on a 14-5 run to trail 40-39 at the intermission.

The third quarter played out much like the second. Idaho led 53-46 with 1:56 to play in the period, but Bad Bear hit a free throw, Beattie made a short turnaround jumper, and Limardo hit back-to-back triples. All of a sudden, MSU again trailed by one.

At that point, White said, success was all about MSU's belief system. "I think we took a huge step not only in this game but the (Weber State game), showing the most composure I've ever seen us have. It was a really special moment to see that we stayed together, we didn't let anything get the best of us, whether it was a call we didn't like or a shot they hit or whatever, we just moved on to the next play."

Allison Kirby hit a three-pointer for Idaho, but then Mocchi made a free throw and Limardo drained another three-pointer to give MSU a 60-59 lead. Paris Atchley's three-pointer gave the Vandals a 62-60 lead, but a jumper by Bad Bear and a triple by and free throw by Beattie gave MSU a 66-62 edge.

Back came the Vandals. Louise Forsyth's basket cut MSU's lead in half, and her ensuing three-pointer at 5:25 gave Idaho a 67-66 lead. It would be the Vandals' last lead. It would be the Vandals' last points.

Limardo made a free throw, then Bad Bear did likewise, and when Beattie canned a pair from the line at 2:43 MSU had built a three-point lead. For two-and-a-half minutes, the teams didn't score, but finally Limardo closed things out with two free throws at the 17 second mark. Beattie hit one five seconds later to close the scoring.

Binford acknowledged that the exhilarating win was fun for the fans, but said may have accelerated her aging. "Our Idaho games and our rivalry games are tremendous for our fans, although I think they may give me grey hairs, and I want to credit Idaho. I thought they were fantastic tonight and really, really hard to guard. I thought our kids clamped down in that last quarter and defended crazy for each other. I'm tremendously proud of the fight and the composure they had to finish the game the right way."

Now Montana State turns its focus to the ultimate goal, a Big Sky Tournament Championship and the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. That opportunity arrives Friday at 1 pm, when the second-seeded Bobcats face fourth-seeded Northern Arizona for the crown.

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