MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho women's basketball team opened the 2005-06 season with a 63-48 victory over Portland at Memorial Gym Friday.

Emily Faurholt and Leilani Mitchell combined for 41 points as the Vandals (1-0) won their third-consecutive season opener.

"This was a really good first game," Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said. "I was very pleased with our defense and we did a nice job setting the line of scrimmage defensively and taking away what they wanted to do. I felt we made them work hard for every basket and I was really pleased with that."

The Vandals started strong, scoring the first nine points and holding the Pilots (0-1) scoreless until the 14:31 mark of the first half. The teams went back and forth until Idaho pulled away to grab a 29-14 lead with 2:19 remaining in the half. Portland would later chip away a couple of points as the half ended with Idaho leading 32-19.

Neither team shot well in the first half as Idaho hit just 9-of-29 (.310) shots from the floor and Portland made just 8-of-27 (.296) shots. The difference for the Vandals was 6-of-15 (.400) shooting from beyond the 3-point line compared to Portland's 0-of-4 (.000).

Portland began the second half with five quick points to pull within eight at 32-24 with 17:53 remaining, but it was the closest the Pilots would get as Idaho went on a 20-5 run over the next 10 minutes to gain its biggest lead of the night at 52-29 with 8:07 remaining. The Vandals matched their 23-point lead three more times during the half before the Pilots pulled within 15 points at 63-48 when the game ended.

Faurholt led all scorers with 22 points and Mitchell chipped in 19 points. Neither player scored after Mitchell's lay-in with 8:07 remaining. Faurholt led Idaho in rebounding with eight while Mitchell added seven assists, seven steals and five rebounds.

The Vandals finished the game shooting 18-of-61 (.295) from the floor and hit just 1-of-10 3-point shots in the second half to finish 7-of-25 (.280) from beyond the arc. Portland finished the game shooting 15-of-52 (.288) from the floor and 0-8 (.000) from beyond the 3-point line.

"Shooting 29-percent from the floor would be one of the things we need to get a little bit better at," Divilbiss said. "We are a better shooting team than that and you have to give Portland some credit for that. They were very physical and made us work extremely hard to get up a shot."

The Pilots were led by Rachel Warren with 13 points and Meagan Bermingham who grabbed 11 rebounds.

Idaho will next travel to the University of New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament where it will match up with Oklahoma State in first-round action Friday at 5 p.m.