At the beginning of the season, Idaho women’s basketball coach Jon Newlee wanted to create a team that could depend on one another.
Newlee said he hoped that the whole team could start shooting rather than rely on one or two people to score.
In a game against Iowa State Nov. 28, the Idaho bench scored 46 points in the 97-65 win.
When the team played Northwest Christian a month later, the bench contributed another impressive performance with 30 points.
In the Feb. 4 meeting against Southern Utah, the Idaho bench contributed 56 of Idaho’s 93 points.
Newlee’s early season goal had come to fruition.
In Wednesday’s match-up against Weber State, Idaho emerged with a 77-70 conference win on the road.
Nine of the ten players that saw the court Wednesday scored at least two points. A total of 37 points came from the Idaho bench.
Sophomore post Geraldine McCorkell led the Idaho reserves with 15 points. Senior post Renae Mokrzycki and freshman guard Taylor Pierce added 10 points apiece as substitutes.
Weber State’s bench mustered a total of 14 points, as forward Emily Drake and guard Deeshyra Thomas provided the bulk of the Wildcat offense with 17 points each.
The shooting abilities of the Vandals that were built during the season do not end with bench depth. Idaho is currently ranked fourth in the NCAA for 3-point goals made, averaging 10.5 treys per game.
Senior guard Christina Salvatore moved up to eighth place in school history for 752 career rebounds Wednesday night. She surpassed the mark set by former teammate Stacey Barr.
This win provides Idaho an automatic bye in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament next week. The victory also guarantees that the Vandals will finish no lower than fourth in the conference standings.
Idaho and Eastern Washington are now locked in a battle for No. 2 tournament seed. If the both programs win on Friday, Idaho will be given the No. 3 seed for the tournament based on tiebreaker rules.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos