Dominant. That is one word to describe an Idaho women’s basketball team that has beat its WAC opponents by a combined 67 points through two games including a 50 point victory over Chicago State Saturday.
The Vandals entered WAC play on a 3-game losing streak but quickly erased it with an 81-64 victory Thursday at Missouri-Kansas City. They followed it up with a season-high scoring performance beating Chicago State 92-42 in Chicago. Idaho is 2-0 in the WAC and 9-7 on the season following the wins.
The dominating performance came despite Idaho having no time to practice in Chicago due to leaving Kansas City eight hours behind schedule.
“I told the team that this was an amazing road trip with all the adversity we faced with our travel,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “They came out and were ready to go. I am proud of these guys for starting out the WAC 2-0 on the road with these kind of travel conditions. I’m just hoping we get home tomorrow.”
The reigning WAC Champions had a rough start to the season playing a pair of nationally ranked teams and playing 10 of 14 games on the road. But with a fresh start in WAC play, the Vandals are back to their winning ways.
Against Chicago State (2-12, 0-2 WAC), Idaho started the game with a 9-0 lead holding the Cougars to 0-10 from the field. Sophomore guard Christina Salvatore made four 3-pointers for Idaho but most of the damage was done inside around the rim where the Vandals scored a season high 50 points.
“I thought we did a great job of getting the ball inside,” Newlee said. “It was not just our post players but our guards did a good job of attacking the rim.”
Junior guard Stacey Barr led Idaho with a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds. It was the eighth time Barr has led the Vandals in scoring this season and they post a 6-2 record when she leads the team.
“We definitely played as a team,” Barr said. “We worked well inside and we ran the ball, which was one of our main focuses.”
In addition to Barr, three other Vandals reached double-digit scoring. Salvatore had 16 points, senior forward Alyssa Charlston reached 15 and sophomore forward Ali Forde nabbed 14. Twenty-five of Chicago State’s 42 points were scored by junior guard Tierra Williams (14) and sophomore forward Layne Murphy (11).
Idaho’s next two games are at home with a Jan. 9 contest against Texas-Pan American in the Cowan Spectrum and a Jan. 11 game against New Mexico State. The Aggies will be the first WAC team Idaho plays that was in the conference last season.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]