There would be no scare this time.
Thursday night saw the Vandal women escape Las Cruces, N.M. with a 75-66 win at New Mexico State, their first real challenge on the road to their so-far unblemished Western Athletic Conference record.
That wouldn’t be the case on Saturday night in Edinburg, Texas. UT-Pan American put up a fight for all of six minutes before Idaho put conference win No. 10 on cruise control, taking down the Broncs 85-52 to improve to 17-7 overall and 10-0 in conference play.
Photo credit: Dana Cowgill
The historic win means Idaho is on its first double-digit winning streak since the 1985-86 season. It also means the Vandals still haven’t lost a conference game since the final game of the regular season in 2013, with 13 straight wins including its run through the conference tournament last March.
That streak was hardly threatened on Saturday, only a sluggish first six minutes saw UTPA jump out to a 12-8 lead. But a 14-1 run by the Vandals down the stretch in the first half was enough to put this game out of doubt by halftime, especially for a Vandal team that ended up shooting 53-percent on the night.
Idaho’s poor start probably could be attributed to the fact that travel complications meant Idaho didn’t even get to the arena shortly before tip-off, leaving not enough time for shoot-around. It’s something the team overcame well, coach Jon Newlee said.
“The travel was just horrendous again,” Newlee said. “But I told them, I’m so proud of you. You could have had a ‘poor me’ attitude, drag around, but you know what, they came out and took care of business. I couldn’t be prouder of them for their effort tonight.”
Junior guard Stacey Barr made her case as a clear favorite for conference player of the year Saturday night, dropping 22 points and 13 rebounds in only 26 minutes on the court. Barr now averages 17.9 points and 8 rebounds a game.
While Barr was showing off why she’s arguably the conference’s best player, Idaho required a team effort to counter-act the foul trouble that post players Alyssa Charlston and Ali Forde got themselves early in the first half. Eight of the nine players who saw the court for Idaho registered points, including freshman Brooke Reilly who had seven.
“It’s not one person, we’re a team, that’s what our strength is,” Newlee said. “We are a basketball team, we aren’t one person.”
Even at 10-0, it might be too early to talk about perfection in the conference schedule. But it’s not too early to talk about regular season crown with second place Cal-State Bakersfield visiting the Cowan Spectrum on Thursday. An Idaho win would put the Vandals at least three games ahead of everybody else.