The Big Sky Conference is a tight race.

One game could make the difference between being in the upper or middle tier, having a first-round bye in the conference tournament or not.

Look at third-place Idaho State, which is a half-game from first and 1 1/2 games from seventh in the Big Sky standings.

The Bengals, who haven’t had a bye in the last three conference tournaments, will know at the end of the season about the impact of Saturday’s game at Northern Colorado and, specifically, the last moments of the 60-56 loss.

Idaho State (10-6, 5-2 Big Sky) was in great position against the defending conference champion Bears, gaining possession with 30.6 second remaining in the fourth quarter with the score tied 56-56. Then, things went haywire in a situation in which the worst outcome is normally a missed last-second shot and the game advancing to overtime.

Bengals guard Saylair Grandon took a handoff at the 3-point arc, started to drive inside and was called for a charge near the 3-point line with two seconds remaining. Then, Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski was called for a game-deciding technical foul to send UNC to the free-throw line, where star Savannah Smith put her team ahead 58-56 after drawing the charge.

Immediately after the charge call, Sobolewski punched into the air, took his suit jacket off and threw it toward the bench – all within a couple feet of one referee who had their back to the ISU coach. It was unclear, based on video footage, if Sobolewski said anything.

“He obviously took responsibility for the technical at the end of the game,” Grandon said of Sobolewski, who also had two technicals at UNC last season. “None of us were blaming him or thought it was his fault. We kind of thought it was all of our faults on little aspects of the game.”

Because the free throws were for the technical foul, the Bears got the ball back afterward with little time left, assuring them the win that ended with a score of 60-56.

Sobolewski did not want to go in-depth about the technical that he called “old news” on Wednesday, but did say “I’m way more together and strategic about how I do things now,” regarding managing his emotions now compared to the start of his ISU career.

“You want to be as controlled and calm as you can be,” Sobolewski said. “But I think in really competitive athletics, the people who are just calm or appear to be calm – that’s like 10 percent. Everyone gets technicals. I mean almost everyone.”

After riding a five-game winning streak, the Bengals will start anew following the UNC loss.

Idaho State hosts both Montana schools this week, playing the Grizzlies on Thursday and the Bobcats on Saturday. The teams are tied for fifth in the conference at 4-3 and are in the top three in the league in points per game during conference play.

“Montana does a good job working well together. They have a good low-post player in Jace Henderson,” Sobolewski said. “Montana State is a little different, where the strength of their team is the perimeter play and – again – they’re both really good at what they do and it takes a collective effort to slow them down.”

During conference play, Henderson is 10th in points per game (15.7), first in field-goal percentage (63), second in rebounds per game (10.7), first in offensive rebounds per game (4.3) and 10th in minutes per game (35.1) in the Big Sky.

The 3-point heavy Bobcats are led by Claire Lundberg, who is tied for sixth in ppg (17), 3-point percentage (43.1) and triples made (3.1) during conference play.

After allowing Idaho’s Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce to combine for 51 points in a conference-opening loss, the Bengals have been disruptive against four of the top seven scorers in the Big Sky.

UNC’s Smith, Eastern Washington’s Violet Kapri Morrow, Weber State’s Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman and Sacramento State’s Hannah Friend had a 25.8 combined field-goal percentage (16 of 62) and a combined average of 14.75 points against ISU.

“Against really good players, go-to players, it’s hard to defend them individually. You’re not going to cover them with one player,” Sobolewski said. “It always has to be a collective effort. You can’t just do it with one player. You’ve got to know how to help and work really hard.”