MOSCOW, Idaho - Heather Thoelke scored a season-high 21 points and Emily Faurholt tallied a game-high 24 points as the University of Idaho women's basketball team (16-8, 11-4) ended a two-game losing skid with a 70-59 win over UC Riverside (12-11, 7-7) Saturday.
The win puts Idaho alone in third place in the Big West Conference and a half-game behind Long Beach State for second place.
"These players worked their butts off tonight," Vandal head coach Mike Divilbiss said. "They played very hard defensively and made a tremendous effort. Riverside does a great job running their offense and they are very hard to guard because they are very patient, they execute very well, and they make you defend for long periods of time. Our players made a very strong commitment to defend like they did for 40 minutes."
UC Riverside struck first to begin the game, however Idaho scored the next six points and eventually built a 9-4 lead at the 15:21 mark of the first half. The Highlanders fought back to tie the game at 12-12 with 13:09 remaining and the next eight minutes would see two ties and six lead changes. UC Riverside took a 21-23 lead at the 6:11 mark, but Idaho then closed the half on a 12-2 run, which included nine straight points, to head into the locker room with a 33-25 advantage.
The Idaho run continued as the second half began and the Vandals used a 10-2 run to build a 43-27 lead at the 17:40 mark. The Idaho lead remained in double-digits for the remainder of the game as the Vandals would eventually build a 19-point advantage at 66-47 with 5:59 remaining. The Highlanders could only cut the lead to 11, which they did on six occasions, before Idaho claimed the win 70-59.
"The best way to describe (the team's performance tonight) is the players stayed in their roles and brought their individual gifts to the team," Divilbiss said. "When we do that, we are a special basketball team. Sometimes we get a little lost on what our gifts are and we need to make sure we bring them."
Thoelke's 21 points were one short of her career-high and came on 7-of-13 (.538) shooting, including 3-of-5 (.600) from beyond the 3-PT line. Faurholt was 8-of-17 (.471) from the floor and 2-of-3 (.667) from 3-PT range for her 24 points. Leilani Mitchell was the other Vandal to score in double-figures as she finished with 11 points, three assists and three steals.
Ticey Westbrooks, who started just her second game of the season, finished with six points and added six assists and two steals. Westbrooks was inserted into the starting line up in place of Jessica Summers, who was battling pneumonia.
"The way we match up with certain teams in a real question mark for us sometimes, but (UC Riverside) is a team where we needed some real quickness. This was sort of a blessing in disguise because we have been looking for an opportunity to allow Ticey to get her feet under her again. We have always known she has the ability and this was a situation where I had to be patient and let her play and she stepped up huge when her teammates needed her," Divilbiss said.
Next week will bring Idaho's final regular-season road trip as the Vandals will face UC Irvine Thursday (Feb. 24) and Long Beach State Saturday (Feb. 26). Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. PT.
