The long road stretch continued for Vandal women’s basketball on Dec. 4 as they opened conference play in Cedar City, Utah. The Southern Utah Thunderbirds already had one conference game under their belt and are 2-0 in the conference after Saturday’s game.
The Vandals started out the game strong and ended the first quarter only down 25-22. But when the Thunderbirds came out of the huddle they ran their lead up to 15, ending the half at 50-35.
After halftime the Vandals came back with a spark going on a 25-13 run to bring the Thunderbirds’ lead once again to three, ending the quarter at 63-60.
The old saying “defense wins championships” was evident in the fourth quarter. Despite their efforts, the Vandals were unable to put any points on the board until sophomore guard Sydney Gandy made a two-point jumper with six minutes on the clock.
The scoring drought only lasted another minute before junior guard/post Beyonce Bea drew a foul on Southern Utah senior guard Cherita Daugherty and hit a free throw. The final points for the Vandals came when graduate student guard Louise Forsyth went to the line off a foul by Southern Utah sophomore guard Samantha Johnston and knocked down both free throws.
While overall the Vandals struggled to score, Bea had a great game putting up 24 points, nine rebounds, and a team high of three steals and two blocks. Louise Forsyth also had a good scoring game with 15 points. The largest struggle for the Vandals was rebounding. Idaho was out-rebounded 43-25 and they committed seven more fouls than the Thunderbirds with four starters fouling out of the game.
On Dec. 11 the Vandals will travel to Austin, Texas, for a non-conference matchup with the Texas Longhorns. After a tournament in Hawaii, the Vandals’ stretch of away games will end. They return to in-conference play on Dec. 30 against No. 3 in Big Sky: the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.
James Taurman-Aldrich can be reached at [email protected]