MOSCOW, Idaho - The Idaho women's basketball team started on a 6-0 run and never looked back as it beat defending Big Sky champion Eastern Washington 75-50 Wednesday night in Memorial Gym.
The Vandals improve to 2-0 on the season, marking their first 2-0 start since the 2004-05 season. Eastern Washington falls to 1-2 with the loss.
The Vandals shot 50.0 percent or better in both halves, and hit 52.9 percent (27-of-51) of their shots in the game, while owning a 39-25 advantage on the glass to cruise to victory. Idaho drained 11-of-22 3-point attempts, while EWU hit just 4-of-23 shots from long range. The Idaho defense held the Eagles to 36.2 percent shooting for the game, while forcing the EWU into 18 turnovers.
"This is the defending Big Sky champions, and for us to take it to them like we did, I thought was tremendous because they are a good basketball team," Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. "To perform like that, as a unit, I thought was very good."
Idaho senior Yinka Olorunnife had her second straight double-double as she led Idaho with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Shaena Kuehu had 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals, and junior Keri Arendse came off the bench to score 13 points and grab four rebounds. Derisa Taleni led Idaho with five assists and added seven points for the Vandals.
"I think our team chemistry is way better than it was the last couple of years," Taleni said. "We play together as a group on, and off the court. We have a lot of depth on this team and we have great freshman and junior college transfers coming in so, we have a good chance and we are going to surprise some people this year."
Idaho distributed the ball efficiently, finishing with 17 assists on 27 made field goals and held a 14-6 advantage in second-chance points. But, the Vandals also turned the ball over 20 times, leading to 19 EWU points. Idaho
"We did a great job rebounding," Newlee said. "I think we did a great job keeping them from second chance points. We had 20 turnovers, so that's something we've got to work on."
Julie Piper led Eastern Washington with 15 points and four rebounds, while Brianne Ryan added 13 points and four rebounds for the Eagles.
The Vandals led by as many as 23 in the first half, and took a 40-18 lead into the locker room at the break. Idaho was aided by an 11-0 run that turned a 19-10 lead into a 30-10 lead in the first half.
EWU threatened to make a comeback, closing the deficit to 14 at 51-37 five minutes into the second half, but Idaho answered with another 11-0 run to pull ahead 62-37 and put the game away. Idaho's largest lead of the game came with just over three minutes to play when the Vandals led 75-45.
The Vandals will be on the road for their next five contests, beginning with a Nov. 20 trip to face UC Santa Barbara. Idaho will then face Oregon, Sacramento State and Cal. State Bakersfield at the Oregon Tournament Nov. 26-28, before traveling to face Wyoming to face the Cowgirls on Dec. 4. The Vandals will return to Moscow to face perennial Big Sky power Montana on Dec. 8.
