Uncertainty.

The mystery of not knowing how a situation plays out can be worse than either result.

For Idaho women’s basketball, the 2019-2020 season had an unexpected and sudden finish, but the ride was one for the ages.

The Vandals finished the 2019-2020 season with a 22-9 overall record, going 15-5 in the Big Sky Conference, matching their total wins from last season.

This came with the overhaul of Idaho’s game plan.

Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce, known as “The Splash Sisters,” scored over 40 points per game for Idaho last season before graduating, over half of the team’s scoring.

Rather than try to make up for the historic scoring, the Vandals elevated their defense to one of the best in program history.

“It was a different team for us this year. We won games with our defense, limited turnovers instead of just trying to outscore everybody,” Idaho head coach Jon Newlee said.

This change didn’t happen overnight.

Senior wing Lizzy Klinker said she knew the team just needed time and patience to find their stride.

“We lost such a big component of our team last year and just reevaluating who we are and finding our identity,” Klinker said. “We came in pretty timid and trying to find our voice, and we found it towards the end of the season … The way our season turned out, I couldn’t have asked for a better fifth year and final season.”

Klinker said the message Newlee and his staff preached was, “control the controllables,” emphasized by the points of having high energy on defense and taking care of the basketball on offense, keeping turnovers low.

Once the wins started coming and the momentum started building, the Vandals did not look back.

Newlee’s squad finished the season as one of the most efficient offenses in the country. They were sixth in the nation in turnovers allowed, averaging 11.4 per game.

This carried from the defense. They gave up the second-fewest points in program history of 58.8 per game, just a tenth of a point behind the record that has stood since 1980.

Relying strictly on your offense to win games can work, but sophomore guard Gina Marxen said, “it’s a risky game to play.”

Marxen said a solid defense can help bridge the gap. The defense often carried the team to victory by holding teams to 30 or 40 points.

“…not a lot of teams can do that. It was just great to see how we evolved from last year,” Marxen said.

Newlee acknowledged the team’s improved decision making, solid scouting reports and defensive schemes, praising the work done by associate head coach Christa Sanford and the coaching staff.

But teams still need to score to win games. Rather than asking a couple players to carry the scoring load, the Vandals took a different approach.

“Once we got over that old mindset and really understood that anybody could score at any time. If it’s your shot, shoot it,” Newlee said. “You saw the result of that as well. We were almost impossible to scout just because you cannot zero in on one guy.”

This led to the emergence of freshmen Beyonce Bea and Champney Pulliam becoming regulars in the starting lineup early in the season, with Bea being one of three Vandals named to the All-Conference teams.

Klinker joined Bea as All-Conference third-team and Marxen was named to All-Conference first-team.

Allison Kirby, Isabelle Hadden, Janie King, Hailey Christopher and the rest of Idaho’s bench were key to Idaho’s success this year, Newlee said.

“You could start the group coming in off the bench. That’s a real luxury that I had this year was being able to go to that bench and have no drop-off, and a lot of times just take leads and run with them,” Newlee said.

Posts Natalie Klinker and Isabelle Hadden gave Idaho two diverse styles of post play.

Klinker was the key rebounder at center while Hadden could shoot the midrange, spreading teams out and hurting zone defenses. They did this with intense defense while keeping fouls low, a point of emphasis Newlee said.

The spread-out scoring attack, efficient offense and tight defense allowed the Vandals to avoid losing slumps. They lost back-to-back games only twice last season.

Idaho finished the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the Big Sky tournament in Boise, rolling into the Big Sky Championship game winning 9 of the last 10 games.

“I haven’t been more confident going into a championship game, and I’ve been in a bunch of them, that we were going to win. Just the confidence we’re playing with at such a high level defensively,” Newlee said. “I think people need to understand and know how good we were at the end of the season. I envisioned us rolling Montana State and getting in the NCAA tournament and winning a couple games. Just because defensively alone, with our length and our smarts, we were a dangerous, dangerous team.”

But then the spread of COVID-19 caused the unthinkable cancelation and postponement of sports across the country.

“It was our moment and that’s what’s so heartbreaking for our kids, especially for our seniors who had been playing the best basketball they’ve ever played. In that tournament … we were playing so well,” Newlee said. “That’s what makes that heartache even worse. The unfinished business right at the end was a killer, but they should be remembered as a championship team, just without the official coronation.”

Despite 2019-2020 going down as the season ending with a question mark, it doesn’t change what this program and its accomplishments mean to the players and coaches.

“The pride that I have in our team and how we did just fills my heart so much,” Klinker said. “I would say every one of our team … we all knew what we could do, and just knowing that we could and proving people wrong, it’s something that will forever fill you and knowing that you can do anything you put your mind to. I think that’s what we really did.”

Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kellogg_zack