With an outright Big Sky regular season championship on the line, junior guard Hope Hassmann used a screen from redshirt senior forward Debora dos Santos. She stepped back and let the ball go. As the ball flew through the air, it came down splashing through the net, erupting the ICCU Arena crowd. Behind a 20-point fourth quarter, Hassmann led the (26-5, 17-1) Idaho Vandals women’s basketball team to a 75-64 victory over the (14-17, 7-11) Eastern Washington Eagles, tying the program record with 15 consecutive wins.
Through three quarters, the Eagles had stuck with the Vandals and held a 46-41 lead late in the third. Idaho responded with a run of their own, cutting the deficit to two in the final minute of the quarter. Senior Kyra Gardner grabbed one of her eight total rebounds, raced down the floor, surveyed the defense, got to her midrange spot and buried the shot to tie the game at 46 heading into the fourth.
Senior guard Ella Gallatin, who lit up the Vandals in the first half with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, scored her first points of the half on a cutting layup to give the Eagles the lead again. Over the next few minutes, the game went back and forth until Hassmann took over.
With the Vandals trailing 51-50, Hassmann faced her defender, crossed her over, got to her right hand, finished through contact and made the ensuing free throw.
A couple of big shots by Gardner and dos Santos kept the Vandals ahead, and then Hassmann sealed it.
Hassmann got back to her left hand, spun and split two defenders to get the layup to fall. On the next possession she double pump-faked and laid it off the glass to extend the Vandals lead. Hassmann and sophomore guard Ella Uriarte drilled clutch free throws in the final seconds to put the game away and move the Vandals record to 14-1 in ICCU Arena.
Hassmann finished with 25 points and five rebounds, going 8-19 from the field, 2-4 from beyond the arc and a perfect 7-7 from the free-throw line.
The Vandals showed their championship ability, as they have all season, by overcoming first-half struggles and pulling away when they had to.
“It’s just a mindset. Each media timeout, each regular timeout, we just kept saying it’s winning time,” Hassmann said. “We’ve been in so many big games, maybe not as many close games, but we just really had to come together as a team. Everyone individually made a big play, whether it’s an offensive rebound, getting a steal. We all just came together and did what we knew how to do.”
Head coach Arthur Moreira was pleased with Hassmann when the game was on the line.
“She’s special, man,” Moreira said. “She really came through. I feel like every close game, the ball just finds her and she finds a way to make plays.”
A big catalyst for the second-half success was containing the Eagles’ duo of Gallatin and sophomore forward Kourtney Grossman, who had caused damage in the first half. Gallatin controlled the tempo with her decision-making and shot-making on full display.
Grossman, one of the best rebounders in the country at 12.7 per game, put on a clinic in the paint with 10 first-half rebounds and helped vault the Eagles to a 38-34 halftime lead.
After halftime, the Vandals’ defense shut down Gallatin, who scored just four second-half points to finish with a game-high 26 on 9-of-20 shooting and 4-of-9 from three. Grossman was still a handful and finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Freshman guard Elyn Bowers added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists, including some big shots down the stretch.
Sophomore guard Ana Pinheiro and Gardner were big in the defensive shutdown and have been two of the Vandals’ most consistent and relentless defenders all season.
“We talked at halftime, we needed more urgency trying to deny her,” Pinheiro said. “Everybody helped in that situation and we did a really good job.”
Pinheiro was huge on both ends, finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds and two steals.
Dos Santos, who battled Grossman all night, delivered 10 points and 15 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive glass.
Gardner added nine points and eight rebounds as the Vandals outrebounded the Eagles 52-45, a recipe for success for Idaho.
The Vandals now turn their attention to the Big Sky tournament and believe this tough stretch of three games in five days has them prepared.
“It’s hard to play three games in five days. Fatigue has set in on both sides of the floor in a couple of these games,” Hassmann said. “Going to Boise, that’s exactly how it’s going to look. You’re not going to get a full warm-up. Every team is going to give us their best game, and that’s exactly what we want. So, we just need to go out there, execute and play a true team game. Good things should happen.”
Idaho earned the no. 1 seed in the tournament, will receive a first-round bye and will await the winner of Portland State and Weber State on Sunday, March 8, at 11 a.m.