MOSCOW - Sophomore post Yinka Olorunnife tied an Idaho arena record with 19 rebounds, four University of Idaho women's basketball players scored in double digits and Idaho head coach Jon Newlee earned his 100th career win Sunday afternoon as the Vandal women took down New Mexico State by a score of 70-49 at the Cowan Spectrum.

The Vandals improved to 7-10 overall and 4-2 in the Western Athletic Conference, which gives the team its best-ever start in the league. New Mexico State slips to 6-14 and 2-4 in the WAC.

The Vandal women used first-half runs of 11-0 and 13-0 and a 13-0 second-half run to extend their lead by as many as 26 before settling for the 21-point margin of victory ? the largest ever for an Idaho team in a WAC game.

“Finally, we were making consistent decisions on the offensive end and combining that with (defensive) stops and that's how you get runs,” Newlee said. “I thought our decision-making offensively was very good tonight.”

Olorunnife owned the paint all day long, as she snatched a career-high 19 rebounds and swatted a career-high four shots, to go along with her 17 points. The game marked her third-straight double-double, as well as the WAC's best individual rebounding effort of the season. The rebound total also ties a 20-year-old arena record.

“Yinka just kind of took over in the paint on the defensive end,” Newlee said. “She really got into people tonight and I thought she did a very good job of being physical with a very physical front line.”

Freshman Shaena Kuehu fell just one rebound short of her second career double-double, but finished the day with a solid 13-point, nine-rebound, two-assist, two-steal performance. Kuehu, the WAC's top freshman scorer and 3-point shooter, was 4-of-9 from the field and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc.

Junior Derisa Taleni and sophomore Rachele Kloke also cracked double-digits, as they put in 16 and 11 points, respectively. Junior point guard Charlotte Otero had three assists, five points and three rebounds with no turnovers, while sophomore Alana Curtis was an efficient 3-of-5 from the field with six points, four boards and a pair of assists.

The Vandal defense was stingy yet again, as the Aggies managed just a .268 shooting percentage from the floor and a .222 clip from beyond the 3-point arc. Idaho, on the other hand, hit 26-of-61 shots and finished the game shooting .426 overall and .316 from 3-point range. The Vandals also tied a season-high with six total blocks.

“Defensively, we did such a great job on their perimeter game and that was our focus,” Newlee said. “We said we've got to shut the perimeter down.”

The big difference in the game came down low. Idaho kept New Mexico State away from the basket on defense and worked the paint hard on offense. The result was a 28-8 advantage in paint points. Idaho also outscored NMSU 9-5 in points off turnovers and 8-4 in second-chance points.

The Vandals started the game on an 11-0 run, seven of which came from Taleni, but the Aggies used a 12-0 run to retake the lead a 12-11 with 11:16 remaining in the half. Three minutes later, Idaho broke open an 18-18 tie with a 13-0 run, five of which came from Kuehu, to go up 31-18 before entering the half up 34-26.

Idaho showed no signs of slowing down in the second half, as the Vandals steadily extended their lead to 12 points at 48-36 with 12:07 remaining. After a jumper by NMSU's Tyshae Walton brought the Aggies within 11 at 51-40 with 9:43 left, Idaho spread the ball and rattled off 13 unanswered points over the next four minutes, with five different Vandals hitting shots during that period. A pair of free throws by Kloke put Idaho up by its largest margin of 26 at 68-42 with 3:44 remaining.

The Vandals will play just one game next week, as the Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine come to town on Sunday, Feb. 1 for a 2 p.m. game at the Cowan Spectrum.