The Vandals capped off a three-game road stretch with a 71-56 win on Monday night, extending their winning streak to five in the Big Sky Conference (BSC). Idaho (12-5,7-1 BSC) entered America First Event Center to face off against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds (9-8,3-5 BSC).
Senior guard Lizzy Klinker led the team with 14 points, followed by sophomore guard Gina Marxen who recorded 13 points. Idaho had scored a season-high 71 points and held the Big Sky’s leading scorer, senior guard Rebecca Cardenas to 9 points.
“It was a great team win today. Coach said we needed to attack hard downhill on offense. We had great outside shots and attacked the basket well tonight,” Klinker said.
In the first period, the Thunderbirds took an early lead until Klinker scored her third consecutive shot to give Idaho an 8-7 lead. Both teams traded shots back and forth and the first quarter ended with a three-point shot from sophomore guard Janie King, giving the Vandals an 18-16 lead.
With both teams playing well offensively and defensively in the first half, the Thunderbirds would go on a 4-0 run to close out the half but trailed 32-29 at halftime. King led with 9 points, shooting 3-6 from the three-point line.
Early in the third period, back to back three-point shots would extend Idaho’s lead 38-29 as their offense continued to click throughout the period. They went on a 9-0 run, extending their lead to 14 going into the fourth. Idaho’s defense put the pressure on Southern Utah, and they were able to hold them to 13 points.
“This year our biggest strength is our team effort and energy. It was great to see everyone contribute and lockdown on defense,” Klinker said.
Idaho would finish up the game with a free throw from senior post Isabelle Hadden in the final two minutes to give the team an 18 point lead, the largest of the night. The Thunderbirds received their first home loss, and the Vandals got their fifth straight win.
“We came out in the beginning and moved the basketball and in the second half we ran different stuff and thought we executed well and finished well, but we still allowed too many shots for them at the line tonight,” Head Coach Jon Newlee said.
The Vandals will return to Cowan Spectrum on to start a three-game home stretch starting Saturday.
The Vandals host Northern Arizona at 2 p.m. February 1 in Moscow.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected].