MOSCOW ? University of Idaho women's basketball coach Jon Newlee announced his two signees on Wednesday for the early signing period.

The two newest Vandals will be Kanisha Bello, a 5-8 guard from Hilo, Hawai'i, and Bianca Cheever, a 5-8 guard from Geelong, Australia.

“I feel great about these two coming in because they're the kind of players that we need to fit into the system we want to run from an offensive standpoint,” Newlee said.

Cheever is a sophomore at North Idaho College this season after spending two years with Newlee at Idaho State. After redshirting the 2006-07 season, she played in 30 games and started eight for Idaho State last year and helped the Bengals to a 20-10 record and a Women's National Invitational Tournament berth.

“Obviously, Bianca had been in our system for two years down at Idaho State, so it was great that we were able to ?re-recruit' her,” Newlee said. “She gets up and down the floor well and she was really starting to shoot the three well for me last year and I think she's going to bring a scoring mentality for us, but she's also a good defender.”

Bello is the reigning Hawai'i Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II Player of the Year and a two-time first-team all-BIIF Division II honoree. She led the Kamehameha-Hawai'i Warriors to a 20-8 record and a state title last season as a junior with averages of 14.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.4 steals per game. She will attend Waiakea High School for her senior season.

“I know Kanisha is going to fit in great,” Newlee said. “She's a great shooter, a great scorer and she can create her own shot, so from that standpoint we really liked her game when we watched her the last few summers.”

In addition to her high school playing time, Bello has also played for the Team Aloha club team, which went to the 192-team Arizona Elite basketball tournament last summer and won the consolation title against some of the best teams in the Western United States.

“It's kind of the rap that some of those kids have out there (in Hawai'i) ? that it's only ?island ball,'” Newlee said. “I was out there for three years and I know what it's like, but the club teams from Hawai'i have come over in the last few years and proved that they can compete with anybody on the mainland.”

One benefit that Newlee sees in adding Cheever to the team next season will be that he'll have two players, including sophomore post Ally Sisel, who already know the system and will help the learning process.

“I know Bianca's excited to have a chance to play with Ally Sisel again and to have a guard and a post player who know the system and have already been through it is going to do nothing but jump-start our progress next year,” Newlee said.

With the guard position solidified, Newlee said that his recruiting focus now will be to add some depth down low in the post ? a position that will be thin this season with the redshirt of Sisel and the injury to freshman Jessica Graham.

The Vandal women open their season this Friday with a road trip to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Texas Tech. Idaho returns home on Tuesday to face Montana in its home opener at Memorial Gym.