The University of Idaho women’s basketball team traveled down to Austin, Texas suffering their first loss of the season 73-48. The Vandals (2-1, 2-0 Big Sky) fell to the No. 23 Texas Longhorns (4-1, 0-0 Big 12) Wednesday afternoon.
The game started with a tie at 5-5 in the first quarter, but the Longhorns would run away with the game after that with multiple scoring runs that helped increase their lead throughout the game. The Longhorns defense and three-point shooting were a factor after the first half as they led the Vandals 46-14 at the break. Idaho struggled offensively to get anything going but would change that going into the second half, but it wasn’t enough to stop Texas.
“Very disappointed in the first half from our mental standpoint,” Jon Newlee, UI women’s basketball head coach, said. “I thought we came in intimidated and played intimidated. We talked at halftime that they are a basketball team just like any other. We looked like statues in the first half, but I thought we came out in the second half and played Vandal basketball, and it was night and day.”
Sophomore guard/post Beyonce Bea led the Vandals with 13 points and 11 rebounds as she finished with her first double-double of the season. Freshman guard Sydney Gandy recorded 11 points and totaled a career-high five rebounds in the loss.
The Longhorn’s junior center Charli Collier led the game with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Collier is on the Naismith Trophy watch list as she continues to perform well for the Longhorns as she notched another double-double against the Vandals.
The Vandals second-half performance sparked more offense from the team, but it was not enough to get back into the game as they trailed by 40 points at one point. The Vandals were without graduate student guard Gabi Harrington and senior guard Allison Kirby due to injury. Losing Kirby and Harrington played a factor for the Vandals as Harrington is the Vandals’ current leading scorer. Kirby provides help on defense as she was missed..
“They got hot in that first half, and that’s the gamble you take if you squeeze down and double down on the blocks,” Newlee said. “We made a couple of adjustments at halftime, I wanted us to spread out a bit. We really wanted to get out and take good looks in transition and get more into attack mode. I thought we did a great job attacking the rim in the second half.”
The Vandals return to action Sunday at 6:30 p.m. PT as they travel out to Pullman, Washington to face off against the Washington State Cougars in the Battle of the Palouse.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic.