With the game tied 63-63 and just seconds remaining, the Vandals forced a turnover and found a wide open Alyssa Charlston who put up a buzzer-beating layup to give the Idaho women’s basketball team its first victory of the season, a 65-63 win over Eastern Washington in Memorial Gym.
Steven Devine | Argonaut
Krissy Karr drives to the basket during Idaho’s dramatic victory against Eastern Washington Tuesday evening in Memorial Gym. Junior Alyssa Charlston hit a buzzer beating layup to help Idaho earn its first victory this season.
Idaho was 0-4 coming into the game and had played most of its opponents closely, but the Vandals were finally able to break through and get a win, thanks in a large part to Charlston’s 29 points.
“The effort from the beginning was so much better than it has been for us,” Charlston said. “Everyone was hustling around, flying for o-boards, getting the d-boards, not letting them get too many chances on offense. Just seeing all the energy from every other player makes you want to try even harder.”
The Vandals came out firing with some much-needed offense in the first half, shooting 46.4 percent from the field and capitalized with 14 points off of EWU turnovers. Idaho took a commanding 37-25 lead into the half.
The Eagles wouldn’t go down easy. EWU went on a 5-0 run to start the second half to get right back in the game. Things settled down for Idaho a little, but the Eagles kept chipping away and took the lead with just more than four minutes to go, but Charlston responded by hitting a three to retake the lead 60-59, which started a string of lead changes.
Idaho coach Jon Newlee said Eastern Washington’s push was due to Lexie Nelson, who sparked the Eagle run and finished with a team-high 19 points.
“Defensively, Nelson started to take over on us,” Newlee said. “We let her get loose. I thought we got a little relaxed and I thought we did a great job on her in the first half. The second half we lost her a couple times defensively and she got hot. And their big kids started to punish us inside, and their inside-out combination had us on our heels a little bit.”
EWU took a three-point lead with under a minute to go, but Christina Salvatore nailed a three to tie the game. The Vandals then forced a turnover and Krissy Karr dished the rock to Charlston, who hit the game winner with .2 seconds on the clock to give Idaho its first victory of the season.
“We needed this win so bad,” Charlston said. “It’s kind of daunting on a young team to get four losses in a row, but to turn it around is huge for us.”
The Vandals shot 46.4 percent as a team, a huge improvement from their season average of 29.8 percent. Freshman Ali Forde checked in a solid game with seven points and 12 rebounds while Salvatore had 11 points and five rebounds.
Physicality had been a struggle for the Vandals coming into the game, but Idaho showed some fight by outrebounding the big Eagle squad 42-40. Newlee said Idaho’s effort at the boards was a big key to the game.
“We knew coming in this was going to be a physical game,” Newlee said. “We talked about rebounding a lot and tonight was the first time I think we saw effort from everybody in the game rebounding mentality.”
The Vandals will now hit the road for six straight games, starting with Montana on Thursday night for the Lady Griz Holiday Classic. Idaho won’t be back in Moscow until December 29, when the Vandals host Seattle U. to start WAC play.
Charlston said the win will undoubtedly boost the team’s morale and help the Vandals as the tough matchups keep coming.
“It’s so important because now we know how to win,” Charlston said. “We were 0-4, but now we took the lesson from the Portland game. We took the lesson from the Montana game.”
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]