MOSCOW, Idaho—Idaho women's basketball head coach Jon Newlee is no stranger to getting his team into the postseason. Wednesday was a bit different. Idaho's 64-57 win over Utah State to open the Women's Basketball Invitational marked Newlee's first postseason win as Vandal.

Idaho (18-14) got down early on in the contest. Utah State got out to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of the opening frame. Brooke Reilly got Idaho on the board with a 3-pointer, igniting a 7-0 run to tie the game with 6:39 to go in the period. USU momentarily regained the lead, 12-10, before a second 7-0 run handed Idaho a 17-12 lead.

Both teams slowed down the scoring in the second quarter. Idaho was just 1-for-8 at the open of the quarter, getting down 25-19. Idaho closed the final 4:06 of the half on an 8-0 run. Taylor Pierce beat the buzzer with her second 3 of the game, lifting Idaho to a 27-25 lead at the break.

Mikayla Ferenz drilled a three for Idaho to get the scoring going in the third. Idaho opened the quarter on a 10-0 run, pushing its lead to 37-25. Ferenz scored eight points in the quarter, helping Idaho outscore the Aggies 25-13 in the period. Idaho shot 8-for-16 from the field and 5-of-10 from 3-point distance in the quarter. Ferenz's second 3 of the quarter gave the Vandals a 16-point lead, 52-36, their largest of the night.

Utah State (17-15) climbed back into contention in the fourth, limiting Idaho to just three field goals in the quarter. The Aggies opened the final quarter with a 7-0 run cutting the Idaho lead down 52-47. A pair of Karlee Wilson free throws interrupted the run, but the Aggies continued to pressure the Vandals. Utah State cut the lead all the way down to two, 54-52, completing a 12-2 run in all.

Idaho got key 3s from Pierce and Geraldine McCorkell to get back to an eight-point advantage with 2:47 to play. USU got within four inside the final two minutes. Pierce closed the door with her fifth 3 of the night, wrapping up the 57-64 win.

Pierce led all players with 19 points for the Vandals, snagging a career-high eight rebounds. Ferenz closed the night with 13 points and five boards. McCorkell fought for nine points and seven rebounds. Brooke Reilly finished with eight, while Isabelle Hadden closed with seven.

Olivia West led Utah State with 15 points. Shannon Dufficy recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Keys
Idaho's offense in the late second and early third quarter. The Vandals withstood Utah State's initial counter punch to the first quarter. The Vandals saw its early three point lead erased and found themselves down by six more than halfway through the second.

McCorkell and Jenae Lewallen chipped away for the Vandals and helped Idaho use a combined 18-0 run to take control of the game in the third quarter, 37-25. Idaho had a stretch with four straight 3's, ending the second with hits from Lewallen and Pierce and starting the third with Wilson and Ferenz.

Notes
First postseason win for Idaho since winning the WNIT in 1986…Idaho has now hit a 3-pointer in 293 consecutive games…Utah State recorded an opponent season-high with seven blocks…57 points allowed was the fifth fewest this season by the Vandals…Utah State made an opponent season-low two free throws...McCorkell now is just 17 points shy of 1,000 (983)…Pierce now has 84 3's this season and 172 for her career (5th in school history)…Ferenz has 84 3's this season and 163 career (seventh all-time)...McCorkell passed 500 career rebounds.

Quotes
Head Coach Jon Newlee
On First Postseason Win at Idaho
"It is great. Anytime you can keep winning and keep going, whether it is the NCAA Tournament, WNIT or WBI…We are still one of a bunch of teams that are still playing. Anytime you can keep playing in March, extend your season and get a win especially at home…for Rob Spear to step up like he did and get this home game for us meant so much to me and the program. I really felt like we had to reward that effort. That meant a lot to us. We wanted to really take advantage of situation. If you get to play at home in the postseason you need to take advantage of that. We did tonight."

On what the game came down to
"I think it really came down to us heating up and making some shots. I think defensively we wanted to keep them in the low 50s. I thought if we kept them in the 50s in general we would win the game. I thought we would score a few more points tonight. I thought we got some really good looks that normally go down. I think ultimately it came down to our defensive effort and really keeping them off the foul line. We did not want to give them easy buckets. It was a game of runs. Ultimately we had the better runs and we kept our composure and finished it out."

Sophomore Taylor Pierce
On getting another chance to play after the Big Sky Tournament
"It felt really good. We were really disappointed with how we played in Reno. It was nice to comeback. We were really excited to play in front of that awesome crowd. It was nice to kind of get our feet back and redeem ourselves for how we played against Eastern [Washington]."

Upcoming
Idaho will find out its next opponent tomorrow evening. The Vandals will get the winner of Eastern Washington at Texas State.