Idaho women’s basketball continued to show improvement through December and into January, going 2-4 with every game but one decided by 10 points or less.
The Vandals’ (5-11) youth showed at the start of the season, but they seem to be getting stronger as the season progresses.
Idaho started the break with a 65-59 victory over Wyoming Dec. 18 on the road, thanks to a strong shooting performance. Unfortunately for Idaho, the performance was not repeated two days later when the Vandals lost 61-76 to Eastern Washington.
The Vandals then traveled to Missoula for the Lady Griz Holiday Classic. The Vandals overcame North Dakota in their first game of the tournament. North Dakota defeated Idaho in their first meeting of the year 84-54, but Idaho pulled out a 53-50 victory, despite blowing a big halftime lead. Idaho coach Jon Newlee said it was big to beat North Dakota the second time around.
“It’s a great win,” Newlee said. “To come out to this tournament and get a win like this after this team beat us as bad as they did at their place, it’s great for us and I’m real proud of our team.”
Idaho concluded the holiday classic with a 63-62 loss to Southern Miss. The game came down to the wire, but Southern Miss hit a big shot at the end to come out on top.
Sophomore Alyssa Charlston had a career-high 30 points in the game and earned all-tournament honors.
The Vandals ended the non-conference season with a 72-80 loss to Seattle University Jan. 5 in the Cowan Spectrum. While the Vandals shot well in the game, they had too many turnovers and gave up too many rebounds.
It has been an uphill battle so far for Idaho. The Vandals have dealt with a number of injuries and dependence on young players. After the loss to Seattle U, Charlston said it’s time to lose the young label and step up.
“Boxing out and rebounding on defense has been a consistent problem for us and we can no longer use the excuse that we’re young or that we haven’t played enough games, because preseason is over now,” Charlston said. “We have to get more physical and we have to have pride in rebounding.”
Bright spots for the Vandals so far have been Charlston and freshman Stacey Barr. Charlston said she’s been feeling more confident with every game.
“Offensively I feel more confident,” Charlston said. “The way our offense is designed is to be
constantly moving because we don’t have a size
advantage against most teams, we have a quickness advantage.”