After a 93-58 exhibition win over Lewis-Clark State College Friday night at the Memorial Gym, the Idaho women’s basketball team is hoping to keep the energy going as the Vandals open their regular season against UC Santa Barbara at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Memorial Gym.
“We want to keep getting better, trying to get better in the little areas,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said.
He said rebounding, strong defense and ball movement are areas the team is working to improve.
Senior guard Connie Ballestero led the Vandals with 17 points in their win over the Warriors. Senior post Ali Forde added 16 points and sophomore post Geraldine McCorkell helped with 13 points and eight rebounds.
“We did a great job of sharing the basketball,” Newlee said. “I liked our energy … we need to keep doing that.”
UC Santa Barbara junior point guard Onome Jemerigbe is coming off an honorable mention All-Big West season as she led the Gauchos with 8.6 points and 4.4 assists per game. Her 4.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game ranked her fourth and sixth in the Big West, respectively.
McCorkell said she hopes to continue the fast pace the Vandals established against LCSC.
“We’ve really picked up our offense and our defense, really getting after plays … running in transition so I think it’ll be a lot quicker game than in the past,” McCorkell said.
“It’s early in the year but we have a good mix of veterans and young guys so you know, let the seniors and the older people take a leadership role and we go out and we play hard,” Newlee said.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos