It’s all come down to one game. One game for the Idaho women’s basketball team to complete the greatest season in program history.
On Saturday the Vandals will face off against Seattle U for the WAC Tournament championship — Winner goes to the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a re-match of last year’s championship game, a 67-64 Idaho victory.
The road to re-appearing in the title game wasn’t easy, nor did the Vandals expect it to be. They know better than most teams how hard it is to beat a team three times in a season. Two of the teams Idaho beat last season en route to its tournament championship had swept the Vandals in the regular.
So when New Mexico State walked on the court Friday afternoon, the fact that the Vandals swept them in the regular season in blowout fashion didn’t matter very much. Emotions were high for the underdog Aggies, playing without head coach Mark Trakh due to a loss in his family.
The Aggies were the aggressors, assaulting Idaho with its 3-point game and jumping out to a lead as big as 13 points in the first half.
Still, Idaho coach Jon Newlee was happy enough to be down only six points going into halftime.
“Our club was really resilient today. We got in that whole quickly, Weber was on fire, we know they’re prone to do that,” Newlee said. “We took their best shot in the first half, and to only to be down six with the way we were defending, the way we weren’t moving the basketball we were used to. Everything was kind of conspiring against us in the first half, but we were only down by six and I felt really good about that.”
What Idaho had was a Stacey Barr. The reigning WAC Tournament MVP from 2013 and the current WAC Player of the Year. Her career high 35 points on only 19 shot attempts had Idaho storming back in the second half.
New Mexico State was held scoreless in the first 8:34 of the second half before Abby Scott hit a 3-pointer to draw the Aggies to within 50-44, ending a 15-0 Idaho run. Barr ended the game after that, scoring 9 points in the final 8 minutes of the game to clinch Idaho’s second double-digit game of the tournament.
“I think our mindset was just win another game and respect your opponent because they deserve respect,” Alyssa Charlston said. “Just respect your opponent and play as had as you can.”
The attention now turns toward Saturday, where Idaho will be in a reverse position than it was last year. Last year, the No. 3 seed, Idaho beat a Seattle, the No. 1 seed and a team it hadn’t beaten in the regular season. This year Idaho is the No. 1 seed which has swept the No. 3 seeded Redhawks in the regular season.
Other notes
– Newlee said he hopes to have freshman forward Brooke Reilly for Saturday. She was suited up on Friday and would have played in the case of an emergency against New Mexico State.
– Three Idaho players had double-doubles. Stacey Barr had 35 points and 10 rebounds. Alyssa Charlston had 16 points and 12 rebounds. Ali Forde had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Forde has two double-doubles in the tournament.
– Those three players and Salvatore were the only players to score for Idaho, which only played seven players. Addie Schivo and Mauren Austgulen went scoreless