MOSCOW, Idaho—Things did not start well for the Idaho women on Thursday night and by the time the offense found a slight grove it was too late. The Vandals shot just 19-of-71, falling to Montana State by a score of 76-65. Senior Stacey Barr was the lone bright spot for the Vandals, scoring a game-high 26 points.
The offense sputtered in the first half, scoring just 22 points on 6-of-26 shooting. The Vandals turned the ball over eight times, handing the Bobcats nine points directly. MSU's Delany Junkermier scored six points to lead the Bobcats off the bench. MSU's bench outdid the Vandal bench, 15-0.
“It looked like we were in slow motion offensively in that first half,” head coach Jon Newlee said. “Nobody besides Stacey Barr could make shot when it counted. It was rough. You are not going to win games like that.”
Idaho (9-11, 3-6) opened the second half on an 8-3 run. Christina Salvatore buried a three to open the run. Geraldine McCorkell did rest of the work, scoring five consecutive points to cut Montana State's seven-point halftime-lead down to one at 31-30. The Bobcats bounded back with a 12-0 run, gaining the 13-point advantage with 12:54 still to play. Idaho missed opportunities and failed to get stops as Montana State went up 17 points with under eight minutes to play. A pair of Barr three's twice cut the Bobcat lead to 10, but that was as close as the Vandals would get before the final buzzer.
Barr finished the night 6-of-11 from the field and 10-for-15 from the free-throw line. She snagged 15 rebounds on the night for her 21st career double-double. Sophomore Brooke Reilly totaled 12 rebounds and nine points. As a team Idaho outrebounded MSU, 52-45, fight back on the boards after being outworked in the first half (28-22).
“I thought we wasted a pretty good defensive effort to be honest,” Newlee commented. “I thought we did a pretty good job doing what we wanted to do. They finished with 28 free throws just because we had to foul them at the end. It is a different game if we would have continued to hit shots.”
A troubling trend for the Vandals of late has been missed layups. Idaho finished with 24 points in the paint, after scoring 32 against Eastern Washington last Saturday. The Vandals missed more than 20 shots inside the paint alone on Thursday. The Silver and gold ended the night shooting 26.8 percent from the field and 24.1 percent from behind the arc.
The Vandals now turn their attention to Montana on Saturday. The Lady Griz are coming of a close 565-64 loss at Eastern Washington. The 2 p.m. PT game will be Idaho's annual Hopes for Hope game. A silent auction will be held throughout the game, with all proceeds benefiting the Light a Candle Foundation.
