Defense key in win

Idaho prepares for rematch with Montana

After digging themselves into a 3-7 conference hole, the Idaho women’s basketball team had little room for error heading down the final stretch if the team wanted any hope of advancing to a third straight NCAA Tournament.

Following a crushing 87-74 loss to Montana Feb. 7, a game in which they led for much of the time, the Vandals went into “now or never mode.” Now, they won three of their last four conference games, with each win coming by double digits.

Idaho’s most recent victory came Saturday over Southern Utah. Top-scorer Stacey Barr struggled in the first half of the game, but Idaho won 76-49 in the Cowan Spectrum. Barr moved into fourth on Idaho’s all-time scoring list during the win.

“She didn’t have the greatest first half,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “In the second half, there she was. Stacey taking it to the glass, hitting the 3s, taking good shots … Fourth all-time, she is a scorer, she finds ways.”

The Vandals will now try to extend their winning streak to three games against the aforementioned Montana Grizzlies in Missoula.

During the win, Barr moved into fourth place on the all-time scoring list, but she said she doesn’t like to dwell on her personal accomplishments. She said she is honored to be in the same category as some of the great players to play for Idaho, including former teammate Alyssa Charleston, whom she passed on the scoring list earlier this season.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Barr had a six-game streak of 20 points or more, but she went into the half with four points. With Barr struggling, the Vandals went to another one of their key contributors for a lift — junior Christina Salvatore.

“It was nice to see her shots start falling again, it has been awhile since she’s made a few in a row and play the way she played … in the first half in particular,” Newlee said of Salvatore.

The last two Vandal victories, both over teams ahead of Idaho in the standings, had been on Idaho’s home floor and the players knew it was time to step up and get some wins to move up in the standings and protect their homecourt.

“Every game is like a must-win mentality, but at this point we are just going to fight our way back into it,” Salvatore said.

Defense has been key for the Vandals of late. They held each of their opponents during the last two-game home stand to under 30 percent shooting. Saturday, they did so by shutting down SSU’s dominant inside game and forced them into being a jump shooting team.

“Once we kind of shut that down a little bit inside, they were taking contested jump shots and that’s what we want them to do,” Newlee said. “I thought our players did a great job getting hands in their face when they were going up for those shots.”

The Vandals had their hands full with SSU’s 6-foot-4 Brenna Gates, but thanks to junior Renae Mokrzycki coming off the bench, the Vandals held her in check after nine points in the first half. She finished the day with 14.

Mokrzycki said once they started to bang inside with Gates a little bit, she wasn’t as dominant down low.

“Maybe she just didn’t have the right mentality,” Mokrzycki said. “She wasn’t as physical in the second half as she was in the first, but like I said, it all comes down to mentality and I think that’s all it was for her.”

After going into Thursday at the No. 11 spot in the Big Sky standings, the Vandals got two much-needed victories over Northern Arizona and Southern Utah and they now find themselves eighth in the conference.

“We knew how important the home stand was at this point in the year in particular,” Newlee said. “We needed these two at home and now we need to go out and play as well as we can on the road.”

Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]