It all came down to a late shot attempt by freshman Stacey Barr to tie the game, but it was off the mark, ending the Vandals’ three-game winning streak in a loss to La. Tech 61-57 Saturday in Cowan Spectrum.
The Vandals (8-17, 3-6 WAC) were unable to make history by beating La. Tech (13-11, 6-3 WAC) for the first time in program history. Idaho will have the opportunity to get back in the win column when the team hits the road this week, traveling to Fresno State Thursday and Nevada Saturday.
Senior guard Keri Arendse said the team needs to shake off this loss and concentrate on what’s next.
“Tech is a good team,” Arendse said. “We’re going to keep our heads up and work on the things we need to work on, just push forward and start working for our next game.”
Idaho and La. Tech came out firing in the first half and neither team gave an inch. The half saw 15 lead changes and three ties. The Vandals were able to stop the Lady Techsters with four seconds on the clock and went into the locker room with a narrow lead at 30-29.
Arendse led the Vandals in the half with 11 points after hitting all three of her 3-point opportunities.
The second half picked up where the first left off with the teams going back and forth, but the Vandals offense began to struggle five minutes into the period, allowing La. Tech to build a lead.
Freshman Krissy Karr said the offense lacked fluidity in the second half.
“I think we were thinking too much and thinking about the shots we should take,” Karr said. “It led us into rushing shots and taking bad shots and it didn’t turn out very well.”
The Lady Techsters got their lead up to 10, but the Vandals, as they have done multiple times this season, found a way to come back after a three from Barr and some drives by Karr.
With 14.8 seconds left in the game Barr hit a deep 3-pointer to bring the deficit to three. Idaho then fouled and La. Tech missed both free throws on the other end, giving the Vandals the opportunity to tie. Idaho got the ball to Barr, but she was unable to convert another deep three. La. Tech’s Whitney Jones then hit both shots from the charity stripe to give the Lady Techsters a four-point lead and the win.
While it appeared Barr had some room to step up and take a closer shot, Newlee said it was a set play and said Barr is capable of hitting the deep shots.
“We’ve seen her make that shot in practice, so it’s not like it was a half-court heave,” Newlee said. “She can shoot it pretty deep and that last look was a clean look.”
Newlee said the game wasn’t lost on one shot, but on Idaho’s lapses in the second half.
“It certainly didn’t come down to that by any stretch of the imagination,” Newlee said. “The layups we missed in the first half, the o-boards we gave up, and I thought our transition defense really let us down.”
La. Tech’s Shantale Bramble-Donaldson, who leads the team in nearly every offensive category, continued to play well and led all scorers with 24 points and brought down 14 boards for the double-double.
The Vandals have shown they have the ability to come back multiple times this year, but Arendse said they shouldn’t have to.
“Hopefully we don’t have to keep coming back,” Arendse said. “We want to play 40 minutes hard and that’s one of our goals. Sometimes if we make mistakes and they get on a run, we need to push back more.”
Despite another conference loss the Vandals are still in position to get a decent seed for the WAC tournament. Idaho is No. 6 in the conference, nipping at the heels of Hawaii and San Jose State. Fresno State is still No. 1 with a perfect 8-0 WAC record.