With a thumbs up and a smile, Agueda Trujillo Fernandez celebrated with her teammates. Trujillo Fernandez had just nestled in a 3 early in the second half, getting double-digit points for the first time in her career. She had 12 at the time, but didn’t end there. Trujillo Fernandez took over late in the second half as Idaho’s second-leading scorer with 19 points.
Hannah Sandoval | Argonaut
Senior Alyssa Charlston defends the ball against Chicago State freshman Cailin Nix on Thursday in the Cowan Spectrum. The Vandals won the game 91-41.
Idaho never trailed, dominating Chicago State for a 91-41 win Thursday at the Cowan Spectrum to improve to 21-8 overall and 14-1 in WAC play. The Vandals will face Chicago State Wednesday in the first round of the WAC Tournament.
Trujillo Fernandez, the sparsely used freshman guard from Spain, had nine of her points down the stretch in the second half, as Idaho continued to extend its lead. She was the beneficiary of Idaho having clinched the WAC regular season title four days prior. With the No. 1 seed wrapped up, Idaho coach Jon Newlee used his bench against over-matched Chicago State.
“I’m not surprised, because offensively she’s done a good job, and the last month she’s really done such a good job in practice,” Newlee said. “In fact, yesterday in practice I walked over to Jordan and said, ‘man Agueda is running our offense better than anybody right now from the guard spot.'”
Injuries to freshmen Karlee Wilson and Brooke Reilly and a suspension for forward Ali Forde stretched Idaho’s depth Thursday night. Forde missed the first half because of a violation of team rules, Newlee said. In her place, junior Maren Austgulen got her sixth start of the season, leading the team in minutes with 34 played.
Forde came in late in the second half and grabbed nine rebounds, in only 12 minutes of action.
But it was Trujillo Fernandez who took over for the Vandals late in the second half, going 8-of-12 from the field and coming only a point shy of Alyssa Charlston for the game high in points. Trujillo Fernandez ended up with a career high in minutes and points and hopes her performance nudges her more into the rotation than she has been.
“I’ve been working so hard this season and finally, I had the chance to play some good minutes and I am so glad,” she said. “I was just having fun. I miss playing games against other players, because in practice it’s just the same people.”
Trujillo Fernandez may get another chance at as many minutes next Wednesday when Idaho faces Chicago State in the WAC Tournament.
The Cougars are already slotted as the No. 8 seed, and have now lost to Idaho by 50 points twice on the season.
While Las Vegas may not put money on Chicago State to upset Idaho, the Vandals’ 2013 run through the WAC Tournament serves as a testament anything could happen in Las Vegas.
“I mean it’s definitely another game of basketball. We don’t go in with the attitude that we just beat them by 50, we learned that last year,” junior guard Stacey Barr said. “We played San Jose State really close, and we had never beaten Utah State (last year) — we have to play that game with the same attitude we went in with tonight.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]