CHENEY, Wash. ? It was a tale of two halves Wednesday night at Cheney, Wash., for the Idaho (0-8) women, as the Vandal offense started strong, but sputtered after the half and gave Eastern Washington (2-6) a 65-53 victory.
“I was impressed because they hit us in the mouth and got us down early, but we responded and got the lead back,” Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said. “Then we made some mental mistakes and went from being up one to being down six at the half.”
What started as a tight game with 13 first-half lead changes quickly turned into a double-digit deficit for the Vandals as the Eagles took advantage of a 17-0 run spanning 5 minutes, 49 seconds in the first and second halves to put drop Idaho into a 52-34 hole.
The Eagles rode their strong first-half finish into the second half and outscored Idaho 12-0 over the first 5:10 of the period, aided by three Vandal turnovers. Idaho also missed its first 12 shots of the second and didn't make a field goal until 9:21 remained in the game.
The Vandal women put together their best scoring performance in a first half this season, as they scored 34 in the first 20 minutes shooting 10-of-22 from the floor and picking up 12 points from the free throw line.
Unfortunately for the Vandals, Eastern Washington's offense had trouble finding anything but the bottom of the net as they shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, including seven-of-12 from beyond the arc to take a 40-34 lead into halftime.
The second half was cold on both sides, as the teams combined to shoot just 11-of-52 from the floor. Idaho was four-of-24 for a .167 shooting percentage to finish the game .304 from the field.
La'Kenya Simon-West was the only Vandal player in double digits as she scored a career-high 12 points, nine of which came in the second half. Alana Curtis put up nine points in the first, but was held scoreless in the second half. Katie Madison, who had put up 20 points in back-to-back games for Idaho, was held to just eight points on four-of-six shooting.
The Eagles had three players finish with double-digit point totals, led by Nicole Scott and Katy Baker, who had 13 apiece.
Turnovers were a telling statistic for Idaho once again as 20 Vandal turnovers translated into 28 points for Eastern Washington. The Eagles also turned 15 offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points, while Idaho was only able to turn its 12 offensive boards into four points.
Idaho will be home for its next action as the Vandals host Portland State (6-1) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Memorial Gym.
