MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho women's basketball team rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit but could not score in the final seconds and fell 56-55 to New Mexico State in Memorial Gym.

The Vandals led 53-52 with 1:36 remaining in the game when Karly Felton was called for fouling New Mexico State's Irma Kmitaite as she threw up a desperation 3-point shot as the shot clock expired. Kmitaite converted two of her three free throws to give the Aggies the one-point lead, but Leilani Mitchell gave Idaho the lead back with two free throws with 22 seconds remaining. The Vandals got the missed shot they needed from New Mexico State on its next possession, but Jenean Ford rebounded her own missed shot and converted a lay in with seven seconds left to play. After an Idaho timeout with 3.8 seconds remaining, Mitchell drove to the basket for the final shot, but her lay in missed and no foul was called.

"We wanted to get something going to the basket," Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said of the final play. "We put the ball in our best player's hands and set up a two-person game with Emily (Faurholt) and Leilani, but that's just they way it goes.

"That's how it's been all year. We have lost a lot of games like that, but if we would have played hard in the first half of this game we wouldn't have had to rally back and play in a close game. It's really disappointing for the players and the program."

With the loss, Idaho (8-17, 4-10) falls into eighth place and continues a four-game losing skid. New Mexico State (8-18, 5-10) snapped a six-game streak with the win and moves ahead of the Vandals into seventh place. In order for Idaho to avoid the play-in game at the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, the Vandals have to win their last two games and hope New Mexico State falls to Hawai`i Thursday (March 2). The Aggies hold the tie-break over the Vandals with a win earlier this season over Hawai`i.

The game began as a tight battle with the teams battling to six ties and two lead changes in the first 8:39. The final tie of the first half came at 14-14 with 11:21 remaining before New Mexico State used a 9-2 run to build a seven-point lead at the 8:03 mark. Idaho scored the next three points to cut the deficit to four points, but the Aggies responded by outscoring Idaho 16-9 over the remainder of the half to build a  39-28 lead heading into the locker room.

Idaho shot just 7-of-25 (.280) from the floor in the first half compared to New Mexico State's 16-of-31 (.516) shooting. The Aggies also hit five 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes to Idaho's one. The Vandals stayed as close as they did thanks to 13-of-16 shooting from the free throw line, compared to New Mexico State's 2-of-2.

The Vandals turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and held the Aggies off the scoreboard until the 13:59 mark. At that point Idaho had crept back to within two points at 39-37 before Sherell Neal made a lay in to stop New Mexico State's scoreless streak. Mitchell later cut the lead to one point with a 3-pointer and Karly Felton made a lay in with 10:55 remaining to give Idaho a 42-41 lead. The Vandals later built a six-point advantage with the score 52-46 with 6:21 remaining but were not able to pull away because of consecutive turnovers on their next three possessions. Idaho still led 53-48 with 3:23 remaining, but New Mexico State scored the next six points to earn the one-point advantage and set up the end-game scenario.

Idaho's last field goal came with 6:54 remaining in the game and the Vandals scored just five points over the remainder of the game on 5-of-7 shooting from the free throw line. The Vandals had a span of 5:59 without a point, broken only by Mitchell's free throws with 22 seconds remaining.

"We played with effort in the second half. To play good defense you have to play with effort, it's that simple. I would have been way more disappointed (with the loss) if we would have came out in the second half and rolled over. But the players didn't do that and they played hard the rest of the way. We keep playing hard, but we don't always play smart and that is killing us," Divilbiss said.

Mitchell led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed three steals. Faurholt finished with 18 points while Jessica Summers tallied a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with eight points, six assists and four steals.

Idaho has little time to recover with the last of five games in a span of 12 days coming Monday (Feb. 27). Idaho will play host to #20 Louisiana Tech at 7 p.m. in the Cowan Spectrum.