They had to really earn it, but the Vandals officially became regular season Big Sky champions on Thursday.
Idaho (19-9, BSC 16-3) defeated Weber State 86-78 to secure at least a share of the Big Sky along with a top seed in the postseason tournament.
Photo by: Saydee Brass
“It’s awesome to have clinched the regular season title for the first time in so long,” head coach Jon Newlee said. “The season is such a grind but it’s important for our kids to understand just how cool it is to endure that grind and achieve a regular season title and it’s extremely satisfying for our team.
The Wildcats (5-24, BSC 2-17) surprised the Vandals with a fiery shooting performance out of the gate. Typically a poor shooting team, Weber State shot 57.1 percent from behind the arc in the first half, highlighted by what would turn out to be a career performance from senior guard Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman. Welch-Coleman scored 15 of her career-high 37 points in the first half and gave the Vandals fits on offense all night.
Idaho went into the locker room down 43-34, its largest halftime deficit throughout conference play, but the Vandals’ shooters found their stroke in the third quarter to swing the momentum.
After shooting only 28.6 percent from three and 45.5 percent overall in the first half, the Vandals went 4-7 from three and 12-16 from the floor to close the deficit and retake the lead at 66-64. Senior guard Mikayla Ferenz scored 12 of her 24 points in the third frame, and she led the team with six assists in the game.
“We showed a lot of heart, and as the best team in the league we know we’re going to get everyone’s best shot every night,” Ferenz said. “We got some key stops and that always leads to positive things on the offensive side of the court.”
Fellow splash sister Taylor Pierce had an off night, shooting only 4-15 from three, but she made the biggest differences when the Vandals needed it. She continually took advantage of Weber State fouls, finishing 8-10 from the free throw line. In spite of a 2-8 3-point shooting stretch in the second half, she found an open look with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter and drained a three to put Idaho up 81-76 and effectively put the game away.
“It was a sigh of relief to be able to hit that shot for the team, but even before that we got a huge rebound and my teammates made it all happen so I could get the wide open shot. It was a little harder than usual to make those today, but it felt good to give us that extra cushion,” Pierce said.
The win secures Idaho’s first regular season Big Sky conference title since the 1980s, avenging last year’s near-miss after coming up short to Northern Colorado in the final weeks of the season.
“We know how important it is to get a by in these conference tournaments and once we clinched that, we set our sights on this title and I’m happy for our team and the way we pulled this out today,” Newlee said.
The Vandals are currently in line for the first overall seed in the Big Sky tournament and they will receive a bye into the second round of play regardless of the result of Saturday’s game. Since Northern Colorado defeated Southern Utah on Thursday, either Vandal win or a Northern Colorado loss on Saturday would clinch the outright regular season title for the Vandals.
Idaho’s seniors will play their final game in the Cowan Spectrum against Southern Utah 2 p.m. Saturday March 9.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker