Vandals clinch No. 4 seed for tournament

The Idaho Vandals overcame dreadful free-throw shooting in the final 11/2 minutes Saturday and held on for a 58-56 Western Athletic Conference women’s basketball win over the host Boise State Broncos, clinching the No. 4 seed to this week’s conference tournament.

The Vandals will play Utah State Wednesday at noon at Reno in the first round of the WAC tournament.

Idaho (13-14, 10-6) led 54-46 with 1:32 to play but managed just 4 of 12 free-throw attempts the rest of the way. Boise State (16-14, 9-7) came within two points with 11 seconds to play but BSU’s Janie Bos missed two free throws with 3 seconds left that could have tied the game.

Derisa Taleni scored 19 points and Yinka Olorunnife had 10 points and 14 rebounds for Idaho.

Montana State 85, EWU 67: Mara Hoeffer scored 15 points and five other Bobcats scored 10 points to lead Montana State (14-14, 8-8) to a Big Sky Conference victory over the Eastern Washington Eagles at Bozeman. Julie Piper and Pauline Ferrall combined for 36 points for EWU (10-19, 5-11), which completed its season.

Elsewhere, Montana clinched the Big Sky regular-season title with a 70-60 win over Portland State and will host the conference tourney.