Another season of women’s basketball has come and gone, and for the young Idaho team it was full of growth and experience.
File Photo by Ilya Pinchuk | Argonaut Idaho guard Keri Arendse controls the ball during the WAC tournament in Las Vegas. The Vandals ended the season 12-19 overall and 6-8 in WAC play.
Senior Keri Arendse was the only returning starter coming into this year and was joined by only two other seniors in Adrie Shiels and Ganeaya Rogers. All three seniors were junior college transfers and had only one previous season at Idaho.
The youth and inexperience showed early. Idaho was 5-11 at the start of conference play and continued to struggle in the WAC. The Vandals lost their first seven conference games and a total of eight games in a row, but just when they were buried in last place, Idaho came alive and won six of its last nine games to finish the season.
Idaho assistant coach Christa Sanford said the change was due to the team’s attitude and confidence.
“I don’t know exactly why it just clicked all of a sudden in the second half,” Sanford said. “You just saw a difference of team — a team that wasn’t going to back down.”
The Vandals broke the losing streak with a win on the road against Hawaii. The team followed it up with a road win at San Jose State and a home win over New Mexico State.
h”If we would have lost that game, would it have been a different season? I think it would have been different and we wouldn’t have finished fourth in the WAC,” Sanford said. “It was a great game to win that’s for sure.”
The wins lifted Idaho out of last place and marked the beginning of a late-season surge. Idaho went into the last week of the season No. 6 in the conference and needed to win its last two games, paired with two losses from San Jose State or Hawaii to get a better seed for the tournament. The Vandals got what they needed, winning their last two and claiming the No. 4 seed in the WAC Tournament.
The Vandals faced No. 5 San Jose State in the first round and for the third year in a row, got a WAC tournament win, beating the Spartans 67-63. The Vandals then faced top-seeded Fresno State in the semifinal round, but were unable to recover from a slow start and lost 80-55, ending the season.
Sophomore Alyssa Charlston emerged as the leader for Idaho this year. Charlston averaged 15 points per game, more than 12 boards per game and was selected to the first-team all-WAC, while earning WAC tournament team honors. Freshman Krissy Karr was named to the all-WAC freshman team.
Sanford said the future looks bright, only losing two starters in Arendse and Rogers. Idaho will bring back a host of young talent that includes Charlston, Karr, and freshmen Stacey Barr and Taylor Weiks.
“All our young kids grew a lot this year and I think that Jon (Newlee) did a great job (building) those younger kids, to keep them in those roles and keep believing in them and keeping them on the floor no matter what the circumstances, so next year they have some games experience,” Sanford said.
The Vandals will play in a new-look WAC with multiple teams leaving and entering the conference. Sanford said the coaching staff looks forward to next season regardless of who Idaho plays.
“We have some great guards coming in and we’re really excited about the recruiting class we have coming in with the four kids we signed in the fall,” Sanford said. “The sky is the limit for these kids in terms of where they want to go and how high they want to go.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]