This weekend, when Idaho State finds time to flip on the tape and review its 53-52 road loss to Northern Colorado Thursday afternoon, the Bengals might feel a little disoriented. Maybe a little whiplashed.

Idaho State looked like two different teams over the course of this loss. Early on, ISU (16-9, 12-4 Big Sky) dug itself a hole and fell behind by as many as nine, misfiring on a few shots and facing an early deficit.

Then, in the third quarter, Idaho State made things interesting again. The Bengals ripped off — no typo here — a 20-1 run, turning a 28-24 halftime deficit into a 44-34 lead late in the third frame. For ISU, everything changed: The visitors played better defense, got shots to fall, and when the third frame ended and they owned a 10-point advantage, they looked ready to start this road trip with a convincing win.

That’s when something changed. Idaho State’s offense vanished like a magic trick. The Bengals made just one field goal in the fourth frame — a triple from Tomekia Whitman, who totaled 10 points, giving ISU a one-point lead with around 90 seconds left — and languished against the same zone the Bears played all game.

“In the fourth quarter, we just missed shots,” Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski said in a phone interview. “We missed multiple layups. I think we counted three to five missed layups in that quarter. So just bad shooting. If we had shot a little better in the fourth quarter, we would have won.”

Sobolewski could say that again. In the fourth frame, Idaho State’s offensive numbers looked like this: Four points, 1-for-12 from the field (1-for-4 from beyond the arc), 1-for-2 from the free throw line, one assist, five turnovers and, if his staff’s count was right, enough missed layups to make the Bengals feel like they lost a winnable game.

If you follow this team closely, that might sound like a phrase you’ve heard before. Over the last month or so, Idaho State has watched its missed layups problem bubble to the surface at the worst times. Some shots are contested. Some aren’t. Either way, for a team that entered Thursday in first place in the Big Sky, the Bengals are missing too many layups to win these types of road games.

“There’s a lot of different reasons,” Sobolewski said. “Sometimes you’re going too fast, sometimes you’re off balance. Sometimes you’re really not that open and you probably shouldn’t shoot, if it’s going to be a tough or contested shot. And then sometimes you just miss.”

Montana Oltrogge led Idaho State with 12 points, while Whitman and Callie Bourne logged 10 each for the Bengals, who actually played effective defense. For the game, Northern Colorado shot just 36% from the field, made 4 of 19 triples and coughed up 19 turnovers. More importantly, the Bengals held bruising forward Kurstyn Harden to four points (two at the free throw line), meaning they won a really important matchup.

Even the Bears’ leading scorer, guard Hannah Simental, tallied eight of her 16 points at the free throw line. But Sobolewski took issue with a different part of his team’s defense.

“I thought we had to do a little better in the fourth quarter of rebounding the ball,” said Sobolewski, whose team lost the rebounding battle, 37-27. “We got them to miss on their initial shot a few times, but then we give up a second attempt that they put in.”

For Idaho State, which will visit white-hot Sacramento State on Saturday, cleaning that up will become paramount. For one, the Hornets are the conference’s hottest team with wins in nine of their last 10 games, but they also roster 6-foot-5 center Isnelle Natabou, the conference’s leading rebounder and the player who gave the Bengals the most trouble in the teams’ first meeting.

With this loss, Idaho State gave up the lead in the conference standings. But to make sure their grasp doesn’t loosen more, the Bengals will need to find a way to corral Natabou and scrape out one win out of this two-game road stretch.

“Stay confident,” Sobolewski said of what his team needs to do differently on the glass. “Just focus more on, hey, we gotta finish plays with a block out. Every defensive possession needs to finish with a block out and a rebound.”