If the box score was any indication, the Idaho State women's basketball team mustered one of its finest performances - and to be precise, first halves - of the season in a 69-59 win over Eastern Washington on Saturday at Reese Court.

Four Bengals scored in double figures, led by senior point guard Jenna Brown's career-high-tying 24 points. Brown also collected a career-best five steals and spearheaded a marauding Idaho State defense that forced a season-high number of turnovers.

The victory bumped the Bengals back into third place in the Big Sky standings and gave them a season sweep over the Eagles.

"Everybody came out and shot the ball really well," Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski said by cell phone from Cheney, Wash. "I felt like everyone had their little stretch."

Michelle Grohs finished with 14 points, Oana Iacovita had 12 and Devin Diehl sank 3-of-4 3-pointers and chipped in 11.

Idaho State (8-16, 5-6 Big Sky) blasted Eastern Washington (10-15, 5-7) with an early 24-6 run that ended with the Bengals up 31-13 with 7:08 left in the first half.

They held a 39-27 lead at halftime, and the statistics revealed little for which they could be faulted. Idaho State's 39 points tied its season high for first-half production, and the 12-point cushion matched the biggest halftime lead it had held all year. The Bengals shot 50 percent from the field (11-for-22), 45.5 percent from 3-point range (5-for-11) and 100 percent from the foul line (12-for-12).

"It was huge for us," Sobolewski said of the first half.

Eastern Washington sliced the deficit to 41-36 with 14:28 left in the game, but it would get no closer than that. Brown's aggressive play was a big reason why. She got to the foul line 17 times and sank 14 shots, both representing career bests. As a result, Idaho State scored 25 points from the charity stripe on 31 attempts, both season-high totals for the team.

"We put Eastern Washington in tough positions to defend the penetration," Sobolewski said. "It was more of our aggressive play. It was us taking it more to the basket. Usually, the aggressor is the one that gets to the free-throw line the most."

Equally impressive was Idaho State's defensive effort. Eastern Washington shot just 33.9 percent from the field, with its top two scorers, Julie Piper and Nicole Scott, combining for eight points.

The Bengals harassed the Eagles into 24 turnovers, 14 of those coming on Idaho State steals. Again, those two figures were season bests. Sheila Adams and Grohs each had three steals to complement Brown's five.

"Sheila did a phenomenal job coming up with the loose ball, getting the deflection and double-teaming when they weren't paying attention," Sobolewski said. "It was us prying the ball away and getting the steal on people who weren't paying attention."

Idaho State also put up several unflattering statistics, such as its 23 turnovers and 17 offensive boards surrendered. But thanks to the other glittering numbers on the stat sheet, those didn't matter.

"No sense beating a dead horse," Sobolewski said. "It's a big deal if we didn't have the lead we had and the game was a lot closer, but we were executing well on offense. We shot the ball well from the field, and it didn't hurt us."