RENO, Nevada - Leilani Mitchell scored 24 points and Emily Faurholt added 19 points as the University of Idaho women's basketball team defeated Utah State University in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, 70-59.

Idaho (10-18) advances to play top-seeded Louisiana Tech Wednesday (March 8) at 8:30 p.m. Utah State ends its season with a 3-24 overall record.

"Utah State is a very difficult match up for us," Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said. "(Utah State head coach) Reagan (Pebley) does a great job with her players and they get a lot out of their ability. Our players had to really dig down. We started the game very slowly and looked like we were a step and a half behind every play. I was really pleased with how our players played hard and dug down even when everything wasn't going so great for us."

Utah State, which shot a blazing 57-percent from the floor in the first half, scored the first six points and kept Idaho off the scoreboard until the 17:57 mark. The Aggies continued their hot shooting on the way to an eight point lead on two occasions, the final at 14-6 with 14:31 remaining. Idaho caught fire and used a 9-2 run to pull within one point at 16-15 at 9:08 and after Utah State scored to push the margin to three Leilani Mitchell nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game for the first time at 18-18 with 8:14 remaining. Idaho could never garner the lead, however, as Utah State scored the next six points and eventually went ahead by nine points with a 13-4 run that made the score 31-22 at the 3:08 mark. Utah State turnovers helped the Vandals to score the next six points and later cut the 35-33 when Mitchell's lay in fell at the buzzer.

Utah State made 15-of-26 attempts in the first half, including a 6-of-7 performance from Jessica Freeman. Freeman led all scorers with 12 points and six rebounds at the break. Idaho was a respectable 13-of-30 (.433) from the floor in the half, but gave up a rebound margin of 18-10. Mitchell and Emily Faurholt both had 10 points at the break.

Idaho tied the game in the first 11 seconds of the second half and gained its first lead 28 seconds later. The score was tied twice more and lead changed hands twice before the 17:04 mark. Idaho regained the lead at that point and used an 8-0 run to build a 49-42 lead with 15:09 remaining. Utah State scored on its next possession, but MacKenzie Flynn drained a 3-pointer to give Idaho its biggest lead at 52-44 with 12:01 remaining. The Vandal lead hit double digits at the 9:44 mark on a Mitchell 3-pointer and would later increase to 14 points, the largest Idaho lead of the night, on another Mitchell 3-pointer making the score 64-50 with 4:34 remaining. Brittany Hagen brought the Aggies back into the game with back-to-back 3-pointers on Utah State's next two possessions, but the eight point margin would be the closest they would come for the remainder of the contest. Mitchell scored the final nine points of the game for the Vandals, including a 4-of-4 free throw performance in the final 1:31.

Idaho shot 14-of-31 (.452) in the second half while Utah State cooled off to a 9-of-23 (.391) performance. The Vandals outrebounded the Aggies 20-14 in the second half and held a 7-3 advantage for turnovers.

"As the game went along I thought we really picked things up," Divilbiss said. "We started moving a lot better offensively and defensively our intensity picked up. We began to dictate a little bit more on the defensive end of the floor and that was the big difference."

Mitchell finished 8-of-17 from the floor, including 3-of-7 from beyond the 3-point line to lead all scorers. She also added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and zero turnovers in 40 minutes and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Faurholt added five assists and four rebounds to her point total and Jessica Summers chipped in 12 points.

The Vandals won their first game of the season when tied or trailing at halftime. Their previous record in those games was 0-15. It was also Idaho's first win on a neutral court this season (1-4) and is just the third win away from Moscow (3-14).