Idaho State came and left, taking with them Idaho’s winning streak.
The Idaho women’s basketball team lost to Idaho State 62-52 in Memorial Gym Thursday.
“I think our ball movement was bad and there was too much dribbling around, we really haven’t been running our offense the way we should have been running it,” Idaho Head Coach Jon Newlee said. “We also haven’t been over here since November and it’s almost the end of February.”
Junior guards Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce both helped the team profusely with scoring points left and right for the team. Geri McCorkell, post, rebounded the ball many times to help her teammates be able to score for the team. For the first period and part of the second, Idaho seemed to have it under control, but towards the end of the second period, it was downhill from there.
Idaho (15-11, BSC 11-4) started off strong with three 3-point field goals in the first three minutes of the game. Both teams stayed consistent for the first half. Idaho already gave up six turnovers to Idaho State towards the end of the first period.
The game took a turn for the worst for the Vandals in the second period. The time on the clock was running rapidly and Idaho still hadn’t scored any points in two minutes. Idaho State managed to push ahead 30-24 by the end of the first half.
Idaho State came out of the break ready to play, maybe fueled by a good pep talk in the locker room. The Bengals were getting the boards forcing Idaho turnovers every chance they got.
The Vandals were making their comeback and catching up to Idaho State quickly in the final quarter of the contest. Idaho began catching up to Idaho State with four minutes left and the score being 54-52. Even with that great of a catch up, Idaho started to fall behind quickly after that. Towards the end of the final period, Idaho went dry in the last three minutes and no score in six attempts.
“Idaho State did a good job defensively and they had a good coach and they played hard,” Newlee said. “We had to come out and really get mentally more prepared, more focused on what we wanted to do and it turned into a tough grinder basketball game.”
Idaho will now go onto play Weber State 6 p.m. Saturday Feb. 24 in Memorial Gym.
Hannah Goertz can be reached at [email protected]