The Idaho women’s basketball team’s losing streak extended to five games as they struggled to pull out a win.
The streak continued on the road Saturday when the Vandals fell to New Mexico State 61-47, due in part to poor shooting.
The Vandals (5-13, 0-2 WAC) have struggled so far this season with their youth proving to be an uphill battle. Any progress they have made has not translated into victories, but they will have another go at it Thursday when they open a three-game home-stand against Nevada.
The Vandals shot just 26 percent in the game and only 21 percent in the second half, digging themselves into a hole early. Assistant coach Jordan Green said shot selection was an issue.
“We’re getting into games and getting some good defense played on us and we’re rushing things a bit, not getting the shots we want,” Green said.
The first half looked optimistic when Idaho took the momentum of a 12-4 run to take a 26-23 lead going into the locker room at halftime, but the second half was a different story. The Vandals didn’t score for a stretch of almost 14 minutes and combined with a 15-2 Aggie run, the Vandals lost in dominating fashion.
While the Vandals struggled to hit their shots, New Mexico State hit 42 percent of its attempts. The Aggies also owned a 42-37 rebounding advantage, which led to 11 second-chance points.
To make matters worse, the Vandals took a personal blow in the game when freshman Stacey Barr was called for a flagrant foul. Barr was ejected from the game and is in jeopardy of having to sit out Idaho’s next game. Barr has been one of Idaho’s leading scorers this season.
The only silver lining for Idaho was sophomore Alyssa Charlston’s 15 points and 13 rebounds for her second straight double-double and her fifth of the season. Freshman Krissy Karr was the only other Idaho player to get into double figures with 12 points.
Green said the progression to this point in the season has been good, despite the poor record.
“We’ve definitely improved since the beginning of the season and we’re continuing to improve,” Green said. “Obviously we’d like to have a better record than what we have, but every player has improved. We’re not going to win all our games, but hopefully we can continue to improve and pick things up as we start the conference.”