The Idaho women’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak Saturday with its defeat of Morehead State 71-45 at the New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament.
The Vandals (2-4) came into the night having lost every game since their opening day victory against Corban University. Idaho coach Jon Newlee said his team looked the best they had all season.
“It really was the complete package tonight,” Newlee said. “It certainly was the best effort of the year without a doubt. Nobody wanted to leave here 0-2.”
The Vandals started on a 10-2 run and ended the first half on a 12-2 run to take a commanding 37-25 lead into the locker room. Defensively Idaho held the Eagles to 23 percent shooting and caused 15 turnovers. Newlee said it was all about execution.
“Our players implemented the game plan defensively to perfection,” Newlee said. “They did a fantastic job of playing it exactly the way we wanted them to and our defense set up our offense.”
Contributions from a variety of players were key to Idaho’s success. Freshman Stacey Barr once again led the vandals with 18 points while senior Ganeaya Rogers added 14. Sophomore Alyssa Charlston also had 12. Nine different Vandals scored in the game.
“Stacey knocked down some 3s early, Keri (Arendse) got off to a big start and it kind of opened everything up,” Newlee said. “And we handled their pressure. We made better decisions and took better shots than yesterday and all-in-all a great job on both sides.”
The one sore spot for the Vandals was the 19 times they turned over the ball. The Vandals look to take the momentum of this win into Wednesday’s game at 5:30 p.m. in Memorial Gym when PAC 12 foe the University of Washington comes to town.
The Huskies own a 5-1 series record over the Vandals. dals. Washington enters the match with a record of 3-2 and is coming off a loss to San Diego State.