Bengals Riding Perfect Wave

With Idaho State sporting a 6-0 conference record it made me think of when the last time a team went undefeated in Big Sky women's basketball conference play. So I pulled out the record book to take a look back and saw that Montana finished undefeated in 2003-04.


As a matter of fact, I kept looking and found out UM has had five undefeated seasons dating back to 1988-89. The only other team that has had an undefeated conference record was Idaho State. ISU went 16-0 in 2000-01. That year, not only did the Bengals win the regular season, they are won the conference title and went on to compete at their first NCAA Tournament.

Now, ISU does have its work cut out for them this season. This is a tough league. But the Bengals do have one thing working for them this season and that is their team chemistry. I say that because they returned all five of their starters from last season.

Because the league is so balanced, winning all 16 games seems like a tall task. So, what is the history of one-loss teams in the league? Well that has happened six times. The last time a team lost one conference game was 2008-09 when Montana went 15-1. UM has had five years where they only lost one game. The only other team to join UM in the one-conference game loss was Montana State, which went 13-1 in 1992-93.

ISU will have its work cut out for them tonight (Thursday, Jan. 26) as they travel to Greeley, Colo., to take on Co-Big Sky Conference regular-season champion Northern Colorado. NC is 8-2 overall at home this season with its only two home losses coming to Denver and last weekend to Montana State.

The Bengals did beat the Bears earlier this month in Pocatello, Idaho, by a score of 57-52. The Bengals do have one thing going for them against NC, and that is history. Idaho State is 5-1 against Northern Colorado in Greeley and 12-1 overall against NC. ISU will then move on to play rival Weber State on Saturday in Ogden, Utah.

After this weekend though, ISU will have played every team in the Big Sky except Eastern Washington. The Bengals will not see the Eagles until the last two games of the conference season. And after this weekend, ISU will have five games at home where it is 7-1 this season, and play only three games on the road. The Bengals' road games are against Portland State, Sacramento State and EWU.

Do you think ISU will be able to go undefeated in conference play?



Megan Lobdell - Big Sky Conference