MOSCOW ? It was a comeback for the ages Friday night at the Cowan Spectrum, as the Idaho women's basketball team mounted a furious comeback to erase an 18-point Louisiana Tech lead over the final 11 minutes to force overtime, but fell by a 67-63 score.
“This team hasn't quit,” Idaho head coach Jon Newlee said. “We've been down to teams all year and never really been out of a game.
“Our teams are never going to quit here. We're going to battle until the end.”
It was the Idaho (6-10, 3-2 WAC) defense that keyed the late run. The Vandal D held Louisiana Tech (10-9, 3-2 WAC) scoreless for six straight minutes to make the comeback possible. Tech didn't score a point in the final 4:20 of regulation and didn't score for the first 1:39 of overtime.
The high point of the comeback came with 14 seconds left, when junior Derisa Taleni drew a foul and knocked down both free throws to cut La Tech's lead to 56-55. Junior Charlotte Otero snatched the ball away from Tech's Tiawana Pringle just two seconds later and dished it to Taleni, who drew another foul with seven ticks to go.
Taleni made the first, then missed the second shot from the charity stripe, but that wasn't Idaho's last chance, as the rebound went out-of-bounds to Idaho. Taleni got one final look ? a mid-range jumper with three seconds to go, but it rattled and rolled off the rim and the teams went to the extra period.
“We really decided we needed to step up,” Otero said. “We saw La Tech kind of let up ? they were really happy with their lead ... so we had to take advantage of that and attack and everyone really stepped up and kept taking it to them.”
After playing at a frantic pace for the final minutes of regulation, the Vandals still seemed to be in comeback mode at the start of extra time and the result was rushed shots, as Idaho went 2-of-6 during the OT period, while the Lady Techsters went 4-of-6.
“We just rushed a couple bad shots and they knocked down a couple and we were fighting from behind again,” Newlee said.
Idaho sophomore Yinka Olorunnife led all scorers with 21 points, along with 11 rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal. She and Otero stayed on the court for the entire 45 minutes of the game. It was Olorunnife's second-straight double-double and her fifth of the season. Taleni also added 11 points and 10 boards for her second career double-double, while freshman Shaena Kuehu had her sixth-straight double-digit scoring game with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
It was a poor-shooting first half that put Idaho in the hole in the first place, as the Vandals hit 12-of-29 overall for a solid .414 percentage, but hit just one out of nine 3-point shots. Louisiana Tech, on the other hand, was 14-of-33 overall for a .424 clip and hit five out of 10 deep balls.
Tech's Shanavia Dowdell, who entered the game averaging 15.9 points per game, scored just 10 and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Tiawana Pringle scored 15 and grabbed 11 boards. It was the first time this season Idaho had allowed two double-doubles in the same game. The Vandals had only allowed one double-double to an opposing player all season before Friday.
Miscellaneous stats were fairly even, as Tech led points in the paint 28-24, Idaho led points off turnovers 11-9 and bench points 5-4, but the Lady Techsters held a significant advantage in second-chance points at 14-4, while Idaho outscored Tech significantly at the free throw line, 16-4.
The game also featured Idaho's largest home crowd of the season, as 512 vocal fans attended.
While the game featured a number of emotional highs and lows, from the large deficit to the comeback to the overtime loss, Otero said the most important thing for the team to do is simply forget about it all and focus totally on Sunday's game against New Mexico State, which lost at Boise State on Friday night. The game tips off at 2 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum.
“It's a really disappointing loss, because we worked really hard, but we just have to let it go,” Otero said. “We have another game on Sunday.”
