A disappointing fourth quarter for the Idaho women’s basketball team hurt the Vandals’ chances of earning the top seed in the conference tournament, as Idaho fell to Eastern Washington 84-70 Saturday.
Idaho dropped to 12-4 in the Big Sky Conference as a result of the loss and 20-8 overall. The Vandals remain third in the Big Sky standings while the Eagles have sole possession of the No. 2 seed with two games remaining in the regular season.
Perhaps the most devastating news for the Vandals came when the team was forced to play without senior guard Christina Salvatore, who was sidelined with a foot injury.
Vandals Radio Network announcer Tom Purvis reported that Salvatore’s absence ended a streak of 123 consecutive games for the senior.
Idaho coach Jon Newlee said there were no excuses on their loss, despite Salvatore’s injury.
“It hurt our rotation with Christina not being able to play,” Newlee said. “But everyone has been injured on every team and they stepped up. We needed others to step up and I think a few people didn’t show up to play Saturday.”
Salvatore’s replacement for Saturday’s matchup was freshman guard Mikayla Ferenz.
Ferenz said she knew the team had to remain strong without Idaho’s top defender in Salvatore.
“(Christina) does a lot for us, she scores, rebounds and gets assists,” Ferenz said. “We all really focused on picking up that slack. But we didn’t come out with the defensive intensity we needed to…we saddled and Eastern Washington just made great shots and we’ll have to get them next time.”
Ferenz continued an explosive season behind the arc, shooting a game-high six 3-pointers including a basket in the third quarter to score Idaho’s 290th trey of the season. The 3-pointer marks a new single season program record.
Ferenz ended the afternoon with a career-high 26 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field.
The freshman said her teammates were encouraging her to shoot the basketball throughout the matchup.
“I just knew I had needed to step up and my teammates were really encouraging me to make my shots,” Ferenz said. “It’s huge for my confidence because if you don’t have any confidence shooting, they’re not going to go in. It’s really nice to have such great teammates to pick me up when I missed.”
Newlee said Ferenz played great role as a substitute for Salvatore.
“(Mikayla) played extremely hard and was a good job defending Hayley Hodgins,” Newlee said. “She did a great job on both sides.”
Ferenz said she knew her matchup with Hodgins was a key point in the game’s outcome.
“I knew from the start that I needed to get stops and rebounds without Sal,” Ferenz said. “I was really focused on beating Haley from the start and it translated on offense.”
Hodgins was among four players from Eastern Washington to score more than 10 points, as the senior finished with 18 points.
A 14-2 run for Eastern Washington in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter proved too much for Idaho to overcome. The Eagles outscored the Vandals 26-13 in the quarter to clinch the victory and improve to 13-3 in Big Sky play.
Junior guard Tisha Phillips’ strong offensive night allowed her to lead the Eagles with 22 points.
Newlee said the Vandals struggled in stopping the Eagles’ zone offense.
“We didn’t guard Eastern Washington,” Newlee said. “Defensively, we had a lot of breakdowns especially in the fourth quarter. We didn’t do a great job defending them.”
Newlee said Idaho’s defensive struggles will need to be a priority to address with two games left in the regular season.
“I told them after the game that we’re not going to win championships playing defense like we did,” Newlee said. “If you’re out there playing, then you better be 100 percent committed to playing defense and stopping your player.”
Senior post Ali Forde scored 14 points and led Idaho with seven rebounds. However, Forde had four fouls Saturday, and Newlee said it negatively impacted Idaho’s momentum.
“It hurt when Ali had her fourth foul and I had to take her out,” Newlee said. “We were going down the stretch and I needed her late in the game. But again, that’s where people had to step up and we didn’t have that in the post besides Ali.”
The Eagles shot 60.0 percent (36-of-60) from the field. Idaho ended the game shooting 48.1 percent (26-of-54).
The Eagles won the rebound battle 19-14 as junior forward Ashli Payne collected nine boards.
The Vandals have two more games remaining in the regular season. The team plays Weber State at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Ogden, Utah.
Newlee said strong guarding is key for Idaho to remain a contender in the Big Sky tournament.
“My message after the game was if we want to win at Reno, we have to play better on defense” Newlee said. “If we played like we did Saturday; it’s going to be a short trip in Reno.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles