It had all come down to one possession. After 39 minutes and 56 seconds of intense Battle of the Palouse basketball, with four seconds remaining, the Idaho Vandals women’s basketball team had a chance with one defensive possession to do something that hadn’t been done since 1998: beat the Washington State Cougars in Pullman.
After two clutch free throws from redshirt senior forward Debora dos Santos to put the Vandals up two with four seconds it came down to one question: could the Vandals make a stop?
The teams came out from the timeout, the ball sitting just in front of the Cougar bench. As it was thrown in, senior guard Kyra Gardner knew where it was going. Off the inbounds, she made a beeline for the Cougar with the ball. Junior guard Eleonora Villa rose up, but not high enough, and Gardner blocked the attempt.
As the buzzer sounded, she threw the ball to the other side of the court, and the Vandals defeated the Cougars 87-85, sending the bench into a frenzy. Gardner, a Washington State transfer, breaks down the game-winning block and the team’s huge victory over the Cougars.
“I already knew a lot of the plays too, so it was easy to remember where the ball was going,” Gardner said. “At the same time, you’ve got to be able to help your other teammates that need help and communicate. Communication is a big thing for our team.”
The Vandals had confidence even before the game started, and head coach Arthur Moreira’s pre-game speech may have been why.
“I’m going to tell you a secret. I like to make up stats sometimes to validate my points,” Moreira said. “Before the game started, I made up a stat. I said 85% of the upsets in college basketball come in the first two weeks of play. We couldn’t get a stop the whole game. And then in the last timeout, I reminded them what we talked about before the game. I don’t care if we couldn’t get a stop the last 39 and a half minutes. We need to get this one.”
The Vandals were down double digits multiple times but punched right back every time they were hit. Gardner was the key that unlocked the Vandals in the second half, finishing with a career-high 26 points (20 in the second half), eight rebounds and five steals.
“Kyra is such a special player. We see her in practice every day, so we know what she can do when she’s feeling good and she’s making shots,” Moreira said. “She’s the type of player that’s going to do whatever it takes for the team to win.”
After the Vandals started 0-9 from beyond the arc, Gardner knocked down her first three-pointer three minutes into the third quarter to cut the Cougars’ lead to 12. Over the next seven minutes, the Vandals fought their way back on both ends of the floor. Gardner hit her second three-pointer of the quarter, and sophomore guard Ana Pinheiro picked the Cougars’ pocket and raced coast to coast to cut the lead to 69-66 heading into the final ten minutes.
Pinheiro, alongside junior guard Hope Hassmann, kept the Vandals afloat in the first half. Pinheiro finished with a career-high 16 points, while Hassmann added 17 points with several highlight-worthy plays.
In the fourth quarter, the Cougars pushed their lead back to seven before senior Sarah Brans hit a pick-and-pop three-pointer to keep the Vandals alive. From there, it was the Gardner show. She knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to put the Vandals ahead 75-73, then hit another after a Vandal steal to give Idaho its largest lead of the game.
The Cougars battled back to take an 85-82 lead with under a minute to go. After WSU missed a potential dagger three, Hassmann grabbed the rebound and raced up the court. She made amends for an earlier turnover with a picture-perfect bounce pass around the defender to Gardner, who swished the game-tying three-pointer.
The Vandals under coach Moreira have a never-quit mentality, and it was on full display as they battled back from 15 points down multiple times in the game.
“Hell of a game, all the credit goes to Washington State,” Moreira said. “We were down double digits multiple times, but we kept talking about how we’re relentless. We’re more aggressive, we’re going to push the ball, and we’re never going to quit. I thought the girls did a really good job playing together today.”
The Vandals will look to continue the momentum as they travel to California to take on UC Davis on Friday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. Gardner and the Vandals want this win to let everyone know Idaho is here to compete for a championship.
“It just shows everyone what we can do and just keep pushing forward and winning games,” Gardner said. “We’re together, we’re a team, and we have to keep going for it.”
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected].