RUSTON, La. ? The Idaho (1-13, 0-2 WAC) women's basketball team gave Louisiana Tech's offense fits in the first half and forced the Lady Techsters (7-8, 1-1 WAC) into 20 turnovers, but the Vandals struggled on offense and fell 61-39 on Wednesday at Ruston.
If you give up only 61 points on the road to Louisiana Tech, you're playing well defensively,” Idaho coach Mike Divilbiss said. “We gave up 24 offensive rebounds and they still only shot 37% from the floor.
“Defensively, we've played more than well enough to win games, but we're just not shooting well enough to win.”
Idaho's defense played tough in the first half and forced the Lady Techster offense into mistakes and turnovers early and often and opened up a four-point lead early on. Then the shots just stopped falling.
Each team took the same number of shots in both halves, but while Idaho's production declined, Louisiana Tech's increased. Idaho took 25 shots in each half and Louisiana Tech took 35 in each half. The Vandals made nine in the first, but then made just six in the second. The Lady Techsters were just the opposite, as they went from 11 made field goals to 15.
“It was the same old thing,” Divilbiss said. “We get some good looks and just can't make the shots.”
Yinka Olorunnife led the team with 13 points and seven boards, while Katie Madison put up 10 points and grabbed four rebounds. Both Madison and Olorunnife played much of the game in foul trouble. Therese Riedel also provided a boost, as she pulled down six rebounds, scored two points, grabbed a steal and blocked two shots in 15 minutes of play.
Olorunnife and Madison combined to go 10-of-18 from the floor, but the rest of the team was just five-of-32 from the floor, including three-of-14 from the three-point line.
“Madison got into foul trouble and that really, really hurt us because she started out so well,” Divilbiss said. “And Yinka is putting together a very solid freshman career.
“We're getting some solid inside play, but we have got to get some more production out of our wings and it's not happening right now.”
Both teams set the tone early, as they each turned it over once in the first 30 seconds. Before three minutes had gone by, both teams had already combined for five turnovers
Idaho went on an 8-2 run early on to take a 12-8 lead at 11:33 in the first half, fueled by four Louisiana Tech turnovers. Then the Lady Techsters went on a 9-2 run of their own over the next five minutes?fueled by four Vandal turnovers?to take a 19-14 lead with just over six minutes remaining in the half. The two teams cooled down over the final six minutes and went into halftime with the score 28-22 in favor of the Lady Techsters.
The second half couldn't have started much worse for Idaho, as the Vandals made just one of their first 13 shots in the half and allowed the Lady Techsters to move ahead to a 42-25 lead. Idaho was unable to put together enough offense to threaten the lead and the Lady Techsters cruised through the final 10 minutes of the game.
Louisiana Tech's JoKeirra Sneed dropped in a career-high 20 points on eight-of-10 shooting with 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Techsters.
Idaho returns home on Saturday for the team's Western Athletic Conference home opener against Fresno State. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum.
