CHENEY, Wash. - As the old adage goes, "You play to the final buzzer." Idaho women's basketball found out the hard way on Thursday night, as they dropped a 54-51 overtime decision at Eastern Washington, despite holding a 12-point lead with 6:39 remaining.

On the heels of a 17-2 run from the 16:49 mark to the 9:58 mark in the second half, Idaho turned a 24-19 deficit into a 36-26 advantage and appeared poised to put the game away for good. Idaho extended its lead to 12 with 6:39 remaining, but Idaho committed seven turnovers in its final 12 possessions and made just one shot.

"I just feel like we got the lead and they went to some pressure and it was just a meltdown," Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. "Nobody on our team took charge on the floor and that's what was disappointing to me. Nobody stepped up and led us on the floor when we had that bad stretch."

Senior Charlotte Otero had a chance to end it in regulation, as she drove baseline-to-baseline and attempted a layup as time expired, but it rolled around the cylinder and fell out. The overtime period was more of the same for Idaho, as the Vandals turned it over three times, committed three fouls and hit just one of their four shot attempts.

After a lackluster first half that saw 42 missed shots and 19 turnovers between the two teams, Idaho went into the half trailing 17-15. The Vandals were 6-of-26 from the floor and missed all six of their 3-point attempts.

"I feel like we lost that game in the first half with our offensive execution and, once again, our missed point-blank shots," Newlee said. "There were seven missed layups that we charted in the first half and it was a miracle that we were only down by two at halftime."

Junior guard Bianca Cheever led the way for Idaho, with career highs in points and rebounds. She scored 15 and pulled down 11 boards for her first career double-double. Redshirt freshman post Jessica Graham came up big with nine points, 11 boards, two blocks and one steal.

While neither team took control in the first, both came out swinging in the second. EWU opened the period with a 7-4 run and took a 24-19 lead at the 16:49 mark, but Idaho came right back and rattled off 11 straight to go up 30-24 with 11:09 remaining.

Idaho's turnovers gave Eastern Washington steals and extra possessions in the final minutes, and EWU guard Kyla Evans knocked down a 3-pointer with 48 seconds remaining to force overtime.

The overtime period went similar to the final five minutes of regulation, as Idaho turned over, missed shots, committed fouls and couldn't establish any rhythm.  Bianca Cheever had one final look for Idaho, but her 3-pointer with one second left went awry and time expired as the two teams fought for a rebound.

Idaho will try to rebound from the loss on Sunday, when the Vandals return to Memorial Gym to host Montana State at 2 p.m.