Vandals fall to No. 1 Montana

Stacey Barr continues to make case for Big Sky MVP in loss

Senior guard Stacey Barr did everything she could to keep Idaho out of the loss column, but despite 24 points, it wasn’t enough.

The Big Sky leading Montana Grizzlies (20-7 overall, 13-3 Big Sky) maintained their lead in the conference as they defeated the Vandals (12-14, 6-9) 81-68 Thursday night in Missoula, Montana.

Idaho went into halftime down only two after junior guard Christina Salvatore drilled a deep 3-pointer with just over 1:30 to play in the half to cut the Idaho deficit to 32-30.

“I thought the first half was going great,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “We defended like we wanted to we had them shooting the ball the way we wanted them to shoot it.”

Barr gave Idaho its first lead of the game early in the second half thanks to a 3-pointer that put Idaho up 33-32. The early trey was just the beginning of a flurry to start the half as she scored Idaho’s first 10 of the half, but Idaho couldn’t sustain the lead.

The loss sets up a crucial Big Sky matchup on Saturday as Idaho travels to Bozeman, Montana, to take on Montana State (13-14, 7-9).

After Saturday, the team has two more regular season games left to get into the Big Sky Tournament.

“We gotta win all three to get in,” Newlee said. “It’s out of our hands what other teams are doing but we can control what we can control.”

After Barr’s 10-point swing to start the half, she cooled off a bit. After the initial run, she was held to seven points.

As Barr cooled off, Idaho failed to get anything going and began digging themselves into a deeper hole once they got down thanks to bad shot selection, Newlee said.

But this didn’t mean Idaho didn’t have its chances. The Vandals attempted 26 free throws on the night but they only scored 14 from the line.

They didn’t just struggle from the line, either. As a whole, they shot a mere 35 percent from the field on the night. On the flipside Montana shot 44.3 percent and was far more efficient from long range. Montana hit 6-of-13 from beyond the arc, as opposed to 10-of-33 from Idaho.

“You’re not going to beat the No. 1 team in the conference on the road by shooting 14 out-of 26 from the free-throw line and missing a bunch of layups and giving up all the o-boards we gave up tonight,” Newlee said.

Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]

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