MOSCOW, Idaho - The Idaho defense held San Jose State to 28.3 percent shooting and just 41 points, while 10 different Vandals scored, and the Idaho women's basketball team topped the Spartans 62-41 in the Cowan Spectrum on Wednesday night.
Rachele Kloke led the Vandals with 11 points, while Emily Doran and Yinka Olorunnife each finished with eight points and eight rebounds for the Vandals (12-8, 5-3 Western Athletic Confernce).
Olorunnife's eight rebounds give her 538 career rebounds in WAC games, breaking the all-time record of 535 set by Louisiana Tech's Shanavia Dowdell last season.
Doran's eight boards are a new career-high, while her eight points match her previous career-high, set back in January of 2009.
The Vandals also got a bit of revenge, after falling to San Jose State (2-19, 2-6 WAC) earlier in the season.
"You can't really overlook any team in the WAC, and I think we realized that after our game at San Jose," Doran said. "So we just wanted to come out and play hard tonight."
And the Vandal defense certainly made a statement in the early going. The Spartans went the first 11 minutes of the game without a field goal, as Idaho raced ahead to a 22-3 lead.
"We jumped on them fast and early," Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. "We came out focused and ready to play tonight, and that was the difference in the two games."
Idaho took a comfortable 36-15 lead into halftime after shooting 46.2 percent (12-of-26) from the field and 9-of-11 from the free throw line. But Newlee was not as impressed with his team's second half performance. The Vandals turned the ball over 13 times in the second half, and the Spartans matched Idaho's 26 points in the half.
"My goal was for us to come out and just attack them," Newlee said. "I thought we accomplished that goal. What we didn't accomplish was come out and start the second half the same way."
Idaho finished the game shooting 21-for-47 (44.7 percent) from the field, while holding San Jose State to 15-of-53, including 1-of-10 from the 3-point line. The Vandals had 17 assists on 21 made field goals, and four different players -- Bianca Cheever, Derisa Taleni, Jessica Graham and Ganeaya Rogers -- led Idaho with three assists each.
Nine Idaho players played 12 or more minutes, and nobody logged more than 29 minutes for the Vandals, who have won three of their last four games.
"It's nice to have the luxury of having Derisa and Yinka sitting down and resting and getting ready for Hawai'i," Newlee said. "Emily (Doran) came in and did a good job for us tonight. Jess (Graham) I though did extremely well distributing the ball, being active and getting on the glass."
Graham finished with six points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal in 14 minutes of action, the most time she's seen all season after rehabbing a knee injury.
The Vandals are exactly halfway through the conference season, and will play six of their final eight regular season games on the road. Idaho will visit Hawai'i on Feb. 5, Utah State on Feb. 10 and Boise State on Feb. 12 before returning to Moscow.
