As the first quarter clock melted into the second and Idaho State fell behind Sacramento State, the Hornets’ bench erupted. No threes! Assistant coaches and players pleaded with players, trying to help them stay aware and close out on the Bengals’ shooters.

Except their cries only soundtracked Idaho State’s triples. Tomekia Whitman hit one. Then another. Estefi Ors joined the party and splashed one of her own. The Bengals trailed early, but thanks to a barrage of long balls that rained down like missiles, they drew closer and closer.

The problem for Idaho State: Those treys were about the only basket the team could consistently knock down. The Bengals paid for it dearly, falling to Sacramento State 73-57, their 10-game winning streak coming to a sputtering halt at Reed Gym.

“We played a little tight. We played discouraged,” Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski said. “I thought Sac State was smart. They used how to use certain players and put them in the right positions. They really controlled the pace of the game.”

For Idaho State, this amounted to a bizarrely uncharacteristic loss. Everything the Bengals used to engineer their long winning streak, which started in early December, abandoned them: Their scoring punch. Their rebounding savvy. Even their defense, which gave up 26 points to guard Lianna Tillman and 21 to Isnelle Natabou, who also pulled down 17 rebounds, changing the game on the interior.

“It’s her physical presence. Just her physical size and strength that is difficult to deal with,” Sobolewski said. “She’s a good player and she’s always had good numbers, but some of her activity today, how active she was and how hard she played, was pretty impressive.”

That haunted Idaho State (12-7, 8-2 Big Sky) all night. In crunch time and beyond, the Bengals couldn’t get stops when they needed them. Even when they did, they had trouble securing rebounds, which becomes obvious when you check out the numbers in that department: Sacramento State 46, Idaho State 25.

Natabou swung the game on that front, but if there was ever a night for rebounding issues to plague Idaho State, this wasn’t it. Bengal guard Callie Bourne, the team’s best rebounder who had missed the previous five games with a clavicle injury, returned to the lineup. She did so far earlier than expected — earlier this month, Sobolewski estimated Bourne’s absence to last some four weeks — but she didn’t impact the game the way she usually does.

Thing is, that theme applied to Idaho State in several ways. Whitman tallied a team-best 19 points and Dora Goles added 13, but as a team, the Bengals shot a paltry 36% from the field. They only lost three turnovers, but they couldn’t find the shots they usually do. Even when they did that, they couldn’t always convert, missing several layups that would have helped them trim the deficit.

“I felt like we did have quite a few open ones,” Sobolewski said. “Or we got open and we just rushed it and did something silly.”

That hurt the Bengals, but the things they will lament most happened on the defensive end. They couldn’t quite box out Natabou, not with Ellie Smith or Bourne or anyone else. But that also opened things up for other Hornets, who connected on 9 of 21 triples, a solid 43%.

In all reality, this loss doesn’t derail Idaho State’s season, not even close. The Bengals remain in the top two in the conference. They’re getting players back. Thursday marked the first time ISU played at full strength all season. It didn’t turn into a win, but with a home matchup with Northern Colorado looming on Saturday, the Bengals get a chance to do that soon.