MISSOULA, Mont. – University of Idaho women's basketball held a five-point halftime margin at Montana on Sunday afternoon, but a crucial scoring run and a late slump kept Idaho from pulling off the road victory in a 64-57 loss at Dahlberg Arena.

“It was just a back-and-forth game,” Idaho head coach Jon Newlee said after the game. “I think we made a really positive step forward with today's game, but that being said, I'm not into moral victories, and this is a game we could have won if we had executed better.”

Idaho (1-3) worked its way to a 33-28 halftime lead on the heels of senior guards Keri Arendse and Ganeaya Rogers, who posted 11 and seven first-half points, respectively. After Rogers nailed a jumper to extend Idaho's lead to 35-28 early in the second period, Montana (2-2) rattled off an 11-2 scoring run to take a 39-37 lead at the 14:19 mark.

Over the next eight minutes, the Griz clung desperately to leads between one and four points, but with the score 51-49 in UM's favor at the 6:02 mark, Montana rattled off six quick points in just over a minute of play for a 57-49 cushion at the 4:53 mark.

“In the second half, they (UM) went into a zone and we were executing our offense well,” Newlee said. “Then in the last eight minutes or so, we gave up a little spurt and it was just the little things – traveling, bad decisions and then we gave up some drives, gave up some momentum and that's what turned the game.”

Idaho kept pressing on, but the Vandals made just three of their final 10 shot attempts and turned the ball over five times in the final minutes. Montana made five of its final six free throw attempts and used a pair of offensive rebounds to burn critical seconds off the clock and preserve the win.

For the game, Idaho went 38.3 percent overall on 23-of-60 shooting, but hit just three of its 23 attempts from 3-point range for a 13-percent clip. The Vandals also out-rebounded the Griz by a 49-38 overall margin.

“We rebounded well – I thought we were more physical on the glass,” Newlee said. “Weren't shooting well from 3-point range, but we did a good job of running the offense and finishing at the rim.”

The keys for Montana were turnovers and free throws. The Lady Griz turned it over just six times to Idaho's 18, while UM outscored Idaho at the free throw line, 16-8.

For the game, Montana shot just 22-of-69 (.319) overall and 4-of-27 (.148) from 3-point range, but they scored 14 points off Idaho turnovers and, despite offensive rebounds being an equal 14-14, outscored Idaho 12-7 in second-chance points.

Rogers and Arendse led Idaho in scoring with 13 and 11 points, respectively, while freshman guard Krissy Karr posted a five-point, six-rebound, six-assist effort. Arendse and sophomore wing Alyssa Charlston led Idaho with eight rebounds apiece.

Montana's Katie Baker led all players with 22 points on 10-of-18 shooting, while teammate Kenzie De Boer added 14 points and eight rebounds.

After suffering double-figure losses in its previous two games, Newlee said he was proud of the way the team battled in a difficult road environment in front of 2,578 fans at Montana's Dahlberg Arena.

“They're so young, they don't realize how hard it is to win in Missoula,” Newlee said of his team. “The way we battled in that environment, coming off a couple bad games, I was proud of the way we went after it. It was a tough game that could have gone either way that hinged on a couple big plays.”

Idaho will be at the New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament this weekend, where they'll face off with Pepperdine (1-2) on Friday at 4 p.m. (PT) before facing either Morehead State (1-2) or host New Mexico (0-3) on Saturday.

“We're going to get a lot of shots up on Monday,” Newlee said of his week of preparation. “They're off from school, so it's a nice mental break for them. We'll concentrate on Pepperdine for Friday and really ratchet up our preparation on Wednesday and Thursday.”