As she jogged back up the court, after she sent Reed Gym into hysteria, Dora Goles kept a poker face. She looked around at the crowd, wondering what she had done to create such a ruckus. The crowd was nice, she thought, but she had only nabbed a steal and raced the other way for two.

“And then I looked up,” Goles said, “and I was like, ‘Oh, got it.’”

Turns out, Goles had no idea that layup helped Idaho State clear the century mark in a 103-68 win over Idaho Thursday night. When she poked away that steal, she says, she didn’t realize the Bengals were at 99 — only that the team was making everything, sharing the ball, building a lead so wide it felt like they were taking shooting practice the whole night.

They might as well have been. Five Idaho State players scored in double figures: Goles (21), Tomekia Whitman (19), Montana Oltrogge (19), Diaba Konate (15) and Estefi Ors (11), helping the Bengals shoot a scintillating 58% from the field, making 8 of 15 attempts from distance.”

When you watched it, though, you might have felt tempted to wonder — can this group play like this every night? They probably can’t hit triple digits consistently, but they share the ball like they did in this win. Idaho State registered 23 assists on 40 made shots. Ors logged eight on her own. They swung it around like a hot potato, finding shooters, hitting teammates around the rim for layups. ISU scored 42 points in the paint, sweeping the regular-season series with rival Idaho.

“Tonight, so many of my teammates were looking for me,” Goles said. “I would be running down the court and I’d see” — here, Goles raised her eyebrows and looked around the room — “eyes, Tomekia looking for me, Estefi. It was just feeding the hot hand. There were so many hot hands tonight that it was easy.”

Idaho State picked a good night to do it. Because of results around the conference, the Bengals (15-8, 11-3) reclaimed the top spot in the Big Sky, surging ahead of Montana State and Southern Utah for the lead. Nobody in the orange and black laundry says they care about that, though, not with so far to go in the regular season.

What they do care about is delivering wins like this one, about playing like they’ll have to when the calendar flips to March. This was a good start. It wasn’t just that Idaho State looked unconscious on offense. It was that the Bengals created those opportunities by playing well on defense, by rebounding, by creating 14 turnovers, scoring 15 points off them and logging 22 fast break points, leaking out into transition where they’re lethal.

Idaho State probably won’t score again like it did tonight, to be sure, but this looked like the Bengals at their best. They’re back to full strength now. They’re undersized but finding ways to counter that, athletic enough to beat opponents up the court and smart enough to do it the right way.

It helps when Goles is back at full strength too. She injured a finger on her shooting hand back in December, which sidelined her for several game, but it also made her uncomfortable shooting for some time. She wasn’t exactly guessing when she put up shots, she said, but she wasn’t shooting with the precision she usually does either.

Which makes outings like these so encouraging for ISU. Goles hit 4 of 6 shots from deep. Two came on back-to-back possessions in the first quarter.

“A couple of Dora’s in the first half were long ones, but she was in a groove,” Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski said. “We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen it in practice and in different games. When Dora gets going, everything can go in.”

“When a few of us shooters start going off, you’re kinda like, uhh, it gets dangerous,” added Oltrogge, who made the only triple she tried. “Especially when we’re all making our shots, the crowd plays a big part in it.”

Now Idaho State gets a chance to cushion its lead in the conference. On Saturday, the Bengals get Eastern Washington, which sits in the conference’s cellar. Win that one and ISU can earn its fourth victory in five tries. Not that any Bengals will admit to caring. Winning in Boise is what matters. Doing it in Pocatello just doesn’t hurt either.

“It’s good vibes,” Sobolewski said. “Good atmosphere, good energy, we’re positive, we’re playing well. You combine all those things, and that’s what it turns into.”