Memorial Gym was sparsely filled as most Vandal fans were gone for Thanksgiving break, but the Idaho women’s basketball team won its home opener 68-63 over UC Irvine on solid second-half play.
The game ended almost the opposite of how it began. Both the Vandals and the Anteaters started out slow with only one score in the first five minutes of the game. Idaho started 0-8 from the field before back-to-back shots by Idaho guards Stacey Barr and Connie Ballestero helped tie it up at 8-8.
“I think what happened to us at the start was there was a lot of excitement and a lot of jitters being the first home game,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “Everyone was a little too excited and so we talked about settling down at halftime.”
The Vandals had several shots way off the mark, failing to hit the rim early in the game but good defense and rebounding kept it close. It was a back-and-forth battle until halftime where UC Irvine led 31-30.
The second half was a different story for Idaho. Instead of dropping air balls like they did early in the first half, the Vandals started nailing threes. A Barr three gave Idaho the lead at 36-35 with 17:12 left in the game.
Including Barr’s first three, six of Idaho’s next seven shots were threes but UC Irvine was getting points as well. Idaho only led 56-54 with 5:27 to go.
“We shoot well at home usually, we always shoot great in practice in this gym, so I figured they were going to start falling,” Newlee said on his team’s 3-point shooting. “It’s kind of contagious. Once a couple go down, everybody feels pretty good about it, loosens up a little bit and we finally started hitting.”
Another storyline for the Vandals was rebounding. Idaho’s best rebounder, Ali Forde, sat on the sideline the whole game, most likely because she wasn’t prepared to play after travelling with the Volleyball team last week. But despite playing without Forde, the Vandals dominated the offensive and defensive boards. Barr grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds in addition to her team-high 21 points.
“For us to rebound as well as we have … without Ali (Forde) playing, who is our top rebounder, shows the heart and desire that the rest of this team has,” Newlee said.
UC Irvine stayed in the game late on some missed Idaho free throws before the Vandals pulled away at the end to win 68-63. It was the first home game of the season for the Vandals who move to 3-1 on the season with the win. UC Irvine falls to 3-2 with the loss.
“It’s a great start, at home we talk about defending our home floor. We want to win all our games at home and certainly want to give a great effort at home,” Newlee said. “I loved the crowd tonight, hopefully next time we’re at home and the students are back they can add to it. Our crowd was great tonight and our kids love playing in front of them.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]