A slow start in the opening minutes of the first quarter didn’t hinder the Idaho women’s basketball team.
With back-to-back layups by senior forward Renae Mokrzycki to begin the Vandals’ 18-0 run, Idaho never relinquished the lead again and defeated the Northwest Christian Beacons 71-48 Wednesday night at the Memorial Gym.
It was Idaho’s third straight win, extending the Vandals’ record to 6-1.
Idaho played without senior post Ali Forde, who sat out with an injured hip.
Idaho coach Jon Newlee said the Vandal defense was challenged due to Forde’s absence.
“Ali is a huge defensive presence for us,” Newlee said. “Everyone else had to step up and it definitely took a while.”
Newlee said the decision to sit Forde was to allow her to heal for Idaho’s next game, which is against Wyoming at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Cowan Spectrum.
“She could’ve played if we had to have her,” Newlee said. “But she needs a couple more days to rest and should feel a lot better Saturday.”
Freshman guard Taylor Pierce said the team took a while to adjust its defense without Forde.
“Defensively, Ali’s energy level brings us all up,” Pierce said. “Our post did a good job on stepping up and filling her role.”
Without Forde, Idaho’s defense put full-court pressure on Northwest Christian, causing 14 turnovers in the first half. The Vandals also had 18 steals as a team for the game.
The Vandals built on their lead and Northwest Christian was only able to close the gap to 16.
Pierce followed up her 27 points against Iowa State Saturday in Cancun, Mexico, by scoring 16 points Wednesday night. Pierce shot 4 of 9 from the 3-point line.
“Taylor is looking good and she’s a confident freshman,” Newlee said. “She’s very gifted and still got a lot to learn but looked good out there.”
Despite the win, Newlee said he wasn’t completely satisfied with the Vandals’ performance.
“It took a while for us to get dialed in,” Newlee said. “I was disappointed with our lack of focus. Karlee Wilson was fantastic defensively and gave us the energy we really needed because everyone else was sleepwalking.”
Wilson, a junior guard, had five points, four assists and two steals.
Senior guard Christina Salvatore scored 14 points.
Salvatore said Idaho’s defense brings confidence to its offense.
“We lacked intensity starting the game,” Salvatore said. “But once we got going, it’s kind of like a well-oiled machine sometimes. We hope to get our offense going by our defense and try to get fired up on the defensive end which translates to our offense.”
Despite the 23-point win, the Beacons shot 42.6 percent from the field, compared to Idaho’s 36.8 percent.
Newlee said he pulled some of the starters out in the fourth quarter to allow the bench to get more minutes.
“We have to play Saturday,” Newlee said. “Once we got ahead, there’s no reason for my starters to be out there in the fourth quarter. I wanted to get my freshmen some minutes with Mikayla (Ferenz), Taylor (Pierce) and Brigitte (O’Neill) getting those minutes in a game like (Wednesday).”
Pierce said the team needs to come out stronger against Wyoming.
“We have to definitely finish our layups,” Pierce said. “They will fall eventually but we need to keep our defense’s intensity because our defense creates some great offense.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles