Story was edited March 14 after statistical errors were found in the original boxscore

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Leilani Mitchell led all scorers with 27 points and set a conference-tournament record with 11 steals as the third-seeded University of Idaho women's basketball team defeated UC Irvine 63-50 in the quarterfinals of the Big West Conference Tournament.

Mitchell's 11 steals surpassed the previous conference-tournament record of 10 set by Long Beach State's Shameil Coleman in 1987. Her steal total also sets Idaho school records for steals in a game, besting the previous total of 10 held by two players, and steals in a season (113), surpassing Christy Van Pelt's total of 112 set during the 1988-89 season.

After losing four-of-five games in the last month of the season, the Vandals (18-10) have now won their last two and will advance in the tournament to meet second-seeded Long Beach State in the semifinal round on Friday (March 11).

UC Irvine ends its season with an 8-21 record.

"Our players were outstanding on defense," Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said. "It was a tremendous effort. With (Jessica) Summers out, we are undersized. Emily (Faurholt) and (Karly) Felton were outstanding with their post defense. We have a lot of respect for Irvine's post play...they absolutely abused us at their place."

The Anteaters scored the first point of the contest and led 1-0 a minute into the game, but Mitchell scored Idaho's next six points and the Vandals built a 6-2 lead at the 15:58 mark. Faurholt took over the scoring duties from that point, scoring the next seven points and giving Idaho a 13-4 lead with 14:21 remaining. The lead stretched to 16-4 at the 14:02 mark and eventually reached 25-11 with 7:51 remaining in the first half as Mitchell and Faurholt combined for all 25 Idaho points and the Vandals held a 14-point lead. Eventually other Idaho players worked their way into the scoring mix, but the Idaho lead remained constant and was 32-19 with 4:44 remaining. The final minutes of the half would be a defensive struggle as UC Irvine made the only basket and Idaho held a 32-21 lead at halftime.

Mitchell began the second half with four quick points and Idaho built a 14-point lead at 36-21 with 19:08 remaining. UC Irvine cut the lead to eight with a 10-3 run over the next three minutes and would eventually get as close as five when Idaho held a 49-44 lead with 7:00 remaining. Idaho regained its offensive composure at that point and put together an 8-1 run to build a 13-point lead with 3:40 remaining. UC Irvine resulted to shooting 3-pointers to catch up and Idaho was able to take advantage of the misses to run the clock down and build a 16-point lead with 38 seconds remaining. The Anteaters hit a late 3-point shot and Idaho ran out the clock on a 63-50 victory.

"We weren't pretty, but we grinded it out and found a way to get it done," Divilbiss said. "No team is going to go away quietly and we expected that. (UC Irvine has) been playing with more confidence late in the season and they are a more difficult opponent than their 8-21 record shows. This is a quality win for us."

Mitchell was 9-of-15 from the floor and 3-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line in the game for her 27 points. She also added seven assists. Faurholt finished the game with 19 points and Heather Thoelke earned a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.

Friday's semifinal game is tentatively scheduled with a 2:30 p.m. start time. UC Santa Barbara will take on the winner of the UC Riverside vs. Cal State Northridge game at 12 p.m. and the Idaho/Long Beach State game will begin 30 minutes after the first game ends.

Idaho and Long Beach State split the season series with each team winning at home.