MOSCOW ? For the second straight week, the Idaho women's basketball team took a tough opponent down to the wire and, unfortunately, for the second straight week, a late shot from a true freshman barely missed and the Vandals couldn't quite swing the upset.

Carli Bakondy's late mid-range jumper rattled in and out with six seconds remaining and the Vandals down by one, as New Mexico State snuck out of Moscow with a 54-51 victory after making a pair of late free throws.

“Carli showed a lot of courage and took the shot,” Idaho head coach Mike Divilbiss said. “That play was designed to go to Katie, but they defended it well. Carli had a good shot, took it and it just rattled in and out.”

Looking at records, this game shouldn't have been close. The Vandals are now 2-19 and 1-8 in the Western Athletic Conference, while the Aggies will move on with a 17-5 overall and 7-2 WAC record.

For the second straight week, the Vandal women showed a top-three WAC team that they are still a force to be reckoned with in the conference, despite wins and losses. Less than a week after holding Boise State nine points under its scoring average, the Vandals kept the Aggies 14 points below their regular tally.

“That was a high-level basketball game and last week was a high-level basketball game.” Divilbiss said. “A month ago, we couldn't even play with those teams.

“We're not even close to the same basketball team that we were a month ago.”

Sophomore Katie Madison, who had an 11-point, five-rebound effort for the Vandals, said that while the team is getting better, they aren't just happy with a tough effort.

“It was good, but not good enough,” Madison said. “We want to be on the winning end and we should be, the way we're working right now.

“From the beginning of the season to now, we've learned how to play harder, how to play smarter and how to play together. We're not perfect at them, but we're much better.”

The first time the two teams met at Las Cruces, the Vandals struggled with turnovers and fouls and let the Aggies control the tempo. It was no such story this time. The Aggies were just eight-of-16 from the line?a far cry from 26-of-37 a month ago. The Vandals also forced NMSU into 17 turnovers and had just 15 of their own.

Senior Sara Dennehy led a balanced Idaho scoring attack with 12 points and three boards. Freshman Yinka Olorunnife, the WAC's top freshman rebounder, added 11 points and nine boards. Freshmen Alana Curtis and Rachele Kloke stepped up in the offense and added seven and five points, respectively.

Sherell Neal and Anikia Jawara led the way for the Aggies with 17 and 14 points, respectively. The Vandals held Neal, the WAC's third-leading rebounder, to just six boards in 36 minutes of play and held the New Mexico State team 12 boards below its season average of 44.

The Idaho women plan to stay true to their name and will try to “vandalize” a WAC offense for the third straight game as they host Louisiana Tech Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum. The game will also be Idaho's “Think Pink” game. Any fans wearing pink will get into the game for $1 and proceeds will be donated to benefit cancer research.