MOSCOW, Idaho - With four players scoring in double-figures, the University of Idaho women's basketball team found the balanced scoring attack it was looking for in an 81-70 defeat of Cal Poly.
Emily Faurholt led all scorers with 26 points, Jessica Summers garnered her third double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds, Heather Thoelke added 17 points and Leilani Mitchell chipped in 16 points as the Vandals (14-6, 9-2) won their fifth-straight game. With the loss, Cal Poly (9-10, 3-8) dropped its fifth straight and fell below .500 for the first time this season.
"(The balanced scoring) is exactly what we have been looking for all season and I feel the players are happiest with that, too," Vandal head coach Mike Divilbiss said. "It makes us a much better basketball team. Everyone contributed with what they can bring to the team. Karly (Felton) played really well defensively and Stephanie (Sax) came off the bench and made a big three for us, so those players contributed even though they didn't score. And when these other four have this kind of balance in scoring we are very difficult to defend. Teams can't leave anyone open anymore."
The Vandals opened the game with five quick points to take a lead they would hold until the 9:46 mark when Cal Poly got ahead 18-19. Faurholt hit a 3-PT shot on the next possession to put Idaho up two, but the Mustangs responded on the other end of the court to tie the game at 21-21 with 9:19 remaining. The teams battled to a 26-25 Idaho lead with 7:54 remaining before the Vandals shot on an 11-1 run to take a 37-26 lead with 5:39 remaining in the half. Cal Poly responded with a 13-5 run to end the half to cut Idaho's advantage to 42-39 at halftime.
The Mustangs shot a blazing 18-of-29 (.621) in the first half while the Vandals were close behind hitting 14-of-26 (.538) shots from the floor. The difference for Idaho was 6-of-11 (.545) shooting from beyond the 3-PT line.
"(Cal Poly) did a great job in the first half of pushing the tempo and making us play at their pace, but we can play in the 80s or we can play in the 50s if we need to," Divilbiss said. "As long as we make our opponents play against five set defenders we don't care what the pace is because we feel we are balanced enough as a team to be able to play either way."
The second half began very slowly as three Cal Poly free throws were the only points in the first three minutes and tied the game at 42-42 at the 16:57 mark. The Mustangs converted a lay-in after an Idaho miss to take the lead before a 3-PT shot from Heather Thoelke at the 15:44 mark broke Idaho's cold streak and put the Vandals back on top. The next 10 minutes saw six ties but never a lead change, the last tie coming with 5:52 remaining in the game and the score at 61-61. From that point on it was all Idaho as the Vandals steadily built a strong lead and eventually went up by 11 points with 27 seconds remaining before finishing with the 11-point advantage.
"The players did a good job executing and staying within the framework of what we were trying to do in the second half," Divilbiss said. "It took us a long time, but we were finally able to take control of the tempo late in the second half with the motion we were running. We were setting good screens and making them defend for long periods of time which helped slow down their break. Once we got control of the tempo of the game we were able to get into a really good flow."
Thoelke's 17 points tied a season high as she also grabbed eight rebounds and finished with three steals and two assists. Mitchell complemented her point total with eight assists, six steals and one block.
Courtney Cameron finished with 18 points to lead the Mustangs.
Idaho has wrapped up its four game homestand and will next head back to California where they will take on Pacific, Thursday and Cal State Northridge, Saturday. Both games will begin at 7 p.m. PT.
