The Idaho women’s’ basketball team set a new program record with 15 3-pointers, but the hot shooting wasn’t enough to top Utah state when the Aggies came back to beat the Vandals 91-85 Saturday in the Cowan Spectrum.
Idaho got its first conference win on Thursday with a win over San Jose State, but was unable to follow it up on Saturday against the Aggies. The Vandals will now hit the road for a couple, starting with Denver on Thursday.
The Aggies were picked to win the WAC in the preseason poll, and the Vandals went toe-to-toe with them throughout the game, but couldn’t pull it out in the end.
Idaho sophomore Stacey Barr said it shows how far the team has come already this season, but said playing the best teams close is not their goal.
“I don’t think we can be too happy with just hanging with them,” Barr said. “I think we’re a very good team. It is good that we only lost by six and had so many leads throughout the game. That’s great, but we need to keep progressing as a team.
The Vandals (4-12, 1-2 WAC) built an early lead over the Aggies ( 6-9, (3-1 WAC) early by using a 10-0 run midway through the first half, but it didn’t last long. As soon as the run ended the Utah State went on a 9-0 run to tighten things back up. The two teams went back and forth, but Utah State ended the half with momentum by taking a 42-20 lead into the locker room. Idaho turned the ball over 15 times in the first half.
Barr said turnovers were a point of discussion at halftime.
“We spoke about that. If we’re going to give up 15 turnovers in the first half were going to be in a bit of trouble,” Barr said.
The Vandals started the second on fire by going on a 21-0 run, including 15 straight points from Barr on five three-pointers.
“Our point guard was getting me the ball,” Barr said. “We were getting through their press, slash zone, whatever they were playing, and the shots dropped tonight.”
Idaho got the lead up to 61-45, but the Aggies once again came back with 8-0 runs two different times and were able to reclaim the lead. The Vandals kept it close, but the stellar shooting of Devyn Christensen was too much for Idaho as the Aggies narrowly escaped with the 91-85 win.
Barr said it was a matter of Idaho loosening up after a lead was built that let the Aggies come back.
“We went on our run and instead of putting our foot down and increasing our lead, we just didn’t play the best defense and let them back in it,” Barr said.
The Vandals once again had a balanced attack on offence with four players in double figures, led by Barr’s 23 points. Freshman Christina Salvatore also checked in with 18 points off of six 3-pointers. The Vandals out-shot and out-rebounded the Aggies, but turned the ball over 20 times as a team.