Coeur D'Alene, Idaho – The University of Idaho Women's Basketball team has been named the 2019-20 Women's College Team of the Year by the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame after their 22-9 season. In addition, Head Coach Jon Newlee was named the Women's College Coach of the Year by the committee.
This season the Vandals, led by three Big Sky All-Conference selections, finished 22-9 overall and 15-5 in conference, while advancing to the Big Sky Tournament Championship game.

Sophomore Gina Marxen, a First Team Big Sky All-Conference selection, led the Vandals in scoring this season with 13.3 points per game while also leading in assists with 4.5 per game. In addition, Marxen led the Big Sky with 89 total three-pointers at 2.8 per game and with a 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Freshman Beyonce Bea and Senior Lizzy Klinker earned Big Sky All Conference Third team honors and averaged 12.6 points and 12.8 points per game, respectively. Klinker was leading the Vandals through the conference tournament with 16 points and five rebounds per game before the tournament was cut short.
The Vandals boasted the strongest defense in the Big Sky this year,holding its opponents to just 58.8. which ranks second all-time in school history.

"It is a fantastic honor for our team to win the team of the year award. We had a fantastic championship type of year. Winning 22 games for the second consecutive season was a huge accomplishment," said Newlee. "We all felt very confident going into that Big Sky Championship game that we were on our way to the NCAA tournament again. It was a crushing blow to have the game canceled, but I couldn't be prouder of the year we had and how hard we battled all year. Go Vandals!"

In his 12^th season with the Vandals this year, Newlee earned his 200^th win at Idaho and is the all-time winningest coach in program history with 213 total wins. Newlee also crossed the 300 wins mark this season as well and now has 306 NCAA Division I win in his career.

"It is also a huge honor to be named the coach of the year by the North Idaho Hall of Fame committee. I would like to thank them as well as my fantastic coaching staff, associate head coach Christa Sanford, Drew Muscatell, and Jordan Kelley. All their long hours and tireless work was invaluable to our success this year and is a big reason I am receiving this prestigious award," said Newlee.  My team really bought into everything we as coaches brought every day and I give them a big thank you for being such a great group and for being so much fun to coach. It was a great season and I can't wait for next year. Go Vandals!"

Not only was the squad successful on the court, but off as well. The Vandals featured nine players on the Big Sky All-Academic team, a conference best.