MOSCOW, Idaho – The Vandal women's basketball team gears up for just one game this weekend at Eastern Washington. The team will head up to Cheney to take on the No. 2 team in the Big Sky on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. PST. The game will be broadcast on KHQ/SWX and will be available to stream on ESPN+. As always, the game will also be broadcast on the radio at AM 840 KMAX or GoVandals.com.
ABOUT IDAHO: The Vandals (11-11, 4-6) are coming off a 1-2 home weekend with three games in a span of five days. Idaho dropped the first two matches to the Montana schools before completing a sweep over Sacramento State on Monday night.
Kennedy Johnson led the weekend with 58 points, scoring a career-high 26 vs. Montana on Thursday night. She recorded back-to-back games with seven rebounds and totaled six assists on the weekend.
Asha Phillips had a standout weekend as well, scoring 38 points total. She recorded a new career-high of 18 points vs Montana State on Saturday afternoon. In that game, she also tied her career record for rebounds with a team-leading nine. Phillips also led the Vandals with four assists in the win over Sacramento State.
ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON: The Eagles (18-5, 8-2) are also coming off a three-game weekend, facing the Montana schools and then Portland State. They finished the weekend 2-1, suffering their second loss of conference to Montana State, 61-62 on Thursday night.
Aaliyah Alexander and Jamie Loera were the leaders in scoring through the long weekend. Alexander totaled 41 points with 14 against Montana State, 17 against Montana, and 10 against Portland State. Loera scored 15, 19, and five points through the same games.
Both teams averaged just over 61 points on the weekend, which is typical for the Eagles but not for Idaho. The Vandals are fifth in the conference for scoring offense while the Eagles sit in third. Both teams sit top-two for scoring defense with the Eagles allowing an average of 56.5 points and the Vandals 57.5.
SERIES HISTORY: Idaho and EWU have a long-standing rivalry. The overall record between the two teams is 42-44 with the Eagles up by two wins.
Earlier this season, Idaho faced their toughest loss this year to the Eagles, 67-44. Johnson recorded 14 points while Phillips scored 10. Eastern Washington was led by Aaliyah Alexander with 27 points while the rest of the squad did not surpass eight points apiece. Turnovers and trouble with boards cost Idaho the game. Eastern shot lights out in the fourth quarter and created a bigger safety net for their win. Nonetheless, Idaho still had two athletes reach double-digits with Johnson at 14 points and Phillips at 10. Both teams had 14 turnovers to end the game. Eastern capitalized, scoring 16 points off Idaho turnovers while the Vandals only scored six points off the Eagles.
