Since the Vandals gave up 92 points in a loss to Sacramento State on Feb 14, they have tightened up their defense and now find themselves tied for eighth place in the Big Sky.
This all started with a performance against Northern Arizona on Thursday in which they forced 20 turnovers and won by 35 points. That momentum they gained bled into Saturday’s matchup with Southern Utah, which they on 76-49.
“We really got after NAU on Thursday and I thought we really continued that effort, particularly into that second half tonight,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “We thought they might be getting a little tired … So I thought we could ramp this stuff up and I thought defensively we did a great job.”
Along with the win, Stacey Barr moved into fourth place on the all-time scoring list. She came into the game two points shy.
Barr, who is a soft spoken player who doesn’t like to talk about her personal accomplishments, said she is honored to be in such hallowed territory, among the best players to ever grace the program.
This was with her starting off sluggish on the offensive end of the floor. She scored 12 of her 18 in the second half.
“Fourth all time, she is a scorer, she finds ways,” Newlee said. “Even when her shots not on to get to the rim or at least the free throw line.”
The Vandals will look to extend their winning streak to three on Thursday when they travel to Missoula to take on Montana.
The Vandals went into Saturday knowing they needed also needed to keep SSU’s 6-4 center Brenna Gates in check. Although she had nine points in the first half the UI posts did a great job keeping her in check as well.
“We tried to push her outside a little bit and meet her in transition a little bit and make her actually work her way down, we got that one offensive foul on her and she got a little frustrated,” Newlee said.
Among the players that helped assist in shutting down the SSU bigs was Renae Mokrzycki who has recently provided a spark of UI off the bench after finding her way into the rotation.
“Her energy level has been great,” Newlee said. “She comes in, she got real physical with the big kid – got on the glass, made her free throws, was getting to the rim, really jumpstarted us when I thought our energy at that point was going down and that’s why I stuck her in there.”
The energy she provides to the lineup when she gets her minutes is something that Newlee preaches, she said.
“Coach tells us to come off the bench with a lot of energy and that’s what we try and do,” Mokrzycki said. “We try to keep our starts going with a lot of energy as well but I just want to get on that court and just do everything I could.”
Once the Vandals started banging against Gates she started to fold they weren’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with her, Mokrzycki said.
After shutting down the Thunderbirds down low, they then began chucking up jump shot after jump shot, many of those looks were contested and the Idaho defense held them to a mere 23.4 percent from the field on the day.
After the Vandals started to extend the lead in the second half SSU slowly started to slow down and that was when the athleticism of the team really began to shine.
“Once we get the ball out, the bigs weren’t as quick as our bigs and as soon as we get the ball and kick it out to Karlee (Wilson) or Connie (Ballestero) that can push the ball up the floor kind of opens things up,” Barr said. “And once again I think our defense was a great team defense like we did on Thursday night.”
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]