MOSCOW - Yinka Olorunnife grabbed a career-high and arena-record 20 rebounds, Derisa Taleni scored 19 points and the largest home crowd of the season saw the Idaho women's basketball team lead from start to finish to complete a season sweep of first-place Fresno State with a 59-47 win on Friday.

Idaho (10-11, 7-3) solidified itself among the top in the Western Athletic Conference with the win, while Fresno State (17-7, 8-3) maintained a half-game lead over the Vandals for first place in the league, but Idaho now holds the tie-breaker between the two teams.

“It was a huge game for us to able to win on our home floor over quite possibly the best team in the WAC ? the conference champions from last year and an NCAA Tournament team,” Idaho head coach Jon Newlee said. “To be able to beat them at their place and at our place gives us confidence over this last stretch as we play a lot of road games.”

The Vandal women started the game with a Charlotte Otero steal and fast break layup that set the tone for the entire first half as Idaho raced out to a 12-4 lead over the first four minutes. Idaho extended its lead out to 17 points on separate occasions, the last of which was a Taleni lay-up just before the half gave the Vandals a 36-19 lead at the break.

“We just came out with a lot of energy from an offensive standpoint,” Newlee said. “Our shot selection was great in the first half and that was a big key for us.

“We made the extra pass, we were very unselfish and everybody contributed from an offensive standpoint to get us where we were at.”

The Vandal women used effective passing to create open shots and used aggressive, swarming defense to limit the potent Bulldog offense. The results ? a .500 (15-30) halftime shooting clip for Idaho and a .156 (5-32) average for Fresno State.

“Coach Newlee and the coaching staff really told us that we needed to take better shots,” Taleni, who led all scorers with 19 points, said. “I think that, today, we took our time and found our open shots and we knocked them down.”

Olorunnife terrorized the paint in the first half, as she almost single-handedly limited Fresno State to one-shot possessions by virtue of her 15 first-half defensive boards. She ended up pulling down a career-high and WAC season-high 20 rebounds on the day to give her sole possession of the Idaho home court rebounding record which she had tied four games prior with 19 boards against New Mexico State.

Newlee credited Olorunnife's first-half rebounding as a big reason for Idaho's large halftime lead.

“The reason our offense worked so well was because Yinka limited them to one shot, kicked it out and we were able to get into the open floor and get great looks,” Newlee said.

As the adage goes, ?The numbers don't lie,' and Friday was no different. Fresno State, the nation's leading 3-point shooting team, had season lows in all the most important categories ? points (47), 3-point field goals made (4), 3-point field goals attempted (12) and field goal percentage (.296). The Bulldogs have scored fewer than 60 points twice this season ? both times against Idaho, which also won 55-52 on Jan. 10 at Fresno.

Freshman Shaena Kuehu earned her 11th-consecutive double-digit scoring game with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting with three rebounds and a career-high four steals.  Junior Charlotte Otero knocked down 3-of-5 shots for six points, to go along with five assists and three steals. Olorunnife also added 10 points for her seventh double-double of the season.

The Vandals finished the game shooting 24-of-55 (.436) from the field and limited Fresno State to 16-of-54 (.296) from the floor. Idaho also turned seven offensive boards into 10 second-chance points, while Fresno State earned just two second-chance points on the day. Idaho held a 28-20 advantage in paint points and a 10-8 advantage in fast-break points, while the Bulldogs led 14-12 in points of turnovers.

Idaho's win, combined with a loss by Nevada and a win by Boise State, creates a logjam at the top of the WAC standings. Fresno State holds a half-game lead over the Idaho, Nevada and Boise State, which all sit in second place with 7-3 conference records, since the Bulldogs have played one more game than the others and sit at 8-3 in WAC play. Idaho still has one more game at Boise State and two games against Nevada.

Despite the unexpected high standing for the team picked to finish last in the conference during the preseason, Newlee said the team needs to take things one game at a time and focus totally on Sunday's matchup against San Jose State.

“Literally, we've got to just go one at a time and try to continue to win,” Newlee said. “I told them before the game, ?If we can continue to win, it's in our hands and as soon as we don't win, it's in someone else's hands and you never want to be in that situation.'

“There's a long road to go. We're going to enjoy this tonight, but tomorrow when we get back, we've got to start really focusing on San Jose State and the rest of the WAC season.”

Sunday's game against the Spartans tips off at 2 p.m. The game will mark the final stop of the WAC ?Play Up' tour, which has traveled to every member institution to promote the conference's message that all WAC schools continue to grow scholastically, competitively and financially. The first 300 fans in attendance will receive a free WAC cinch sack backpack and will have the opportunity to enter into a drawing for a WAC Tournament ticket package.