Third Time No Charm For Vandal Women Idaho Season Comes To An End With Third Loss This Season To Boise State

For Idaho, losing once to Boise State this season was distasteful and twice was almost unbearable.

All of which made a third setback - a season-ending 73-61 decision in Thursday’s semifinals of the women’s Big West tournament - akin to 2-hour root canal.

If this was UI coach Julie Holt’s last game, perhaps her only fond memory will be of a furious comeback that faded out in the final minute.

“Obviously we didn’t play very well,” said Holt, whose husband, Nick, left UI a few months ago to become an assistant football coach at Louisville. “There’s such a rivalry between Boise State and Idaho, it’s very intense. I wish we’d done our half.”

Holt said she’ll decide on her plans in the next few days.

Idaho finished 15-15. BSU (19-9), which topped the Vandals by 15, 10 and 12, moved into Saturday’s title game against the winner of Thursday’s UC Santa Barbara-Nevada game.

Idaho’s troubles started in the opening seconds when Jennifer Stone missed two free throws.

BSU’s Kellie Lewis hit consecutive 3-pointers and 6-foot-4 center Stephanie Block scored twice in the lane.

The Vandals were down 10-3 and couldn’t make up ground because they missed 7 of 10 free throws in the opening 10 minutes. By then, BSU had a double-digit lead that it stretched to 15 at half after outrebounding Idaho by 11.

Holt employed a zone defense early after seeing BSU struggle against a zone in Wednesday’s win over Pacific. Additionally, she wanted a change-up after UI had played primarily man-to-man in the two previous BSU games.

It was good in theory, but it failed in execution. Block worked over the Vandals with turnarounds from the low post. If UI sagged inside, BSU shooters connected from the perimeter.

“They were trying to mix things up, starting out in zone, which we kind of figured they’d do,” BSU coach Trisha Stevens said. “When they went man, they were trying to take away the inside game and that got our outside going.”

BSU’s bench outscored UI’s 20-4. Heidi Umthun, a Post Falls High product, had 10 points, including five in an 8-0 run that gave BSU its biggest lead at 56-32 midway through the second half.

The Vandals put together an impressive rally, spurred by Alli Nieman’s 12 second-half points. Idaho was down 66-59 after Kelli Johnson’s steal and layup with 1:23 left.

Block scored the crushing bucket on a 7-foot turnaround and Lewis hit five free throws.

“Too little, too late,” Holt said. “You’ve got to play 40 minutes of basketball to beat the No. 1 team in the Eastern Division that’s already beaten you twice. We knew that.”

Idaho probably would have needed one of its best performances of the season because BSU executed crisply in the first 30 minutes. Instead, the Vandals only mustered the frantic rally at the end.

“That first half and the first 10 minutes of second half I felt like we played the smartest basketball we’ve played,” Stevens said.

“Boise State deserves a lot of credit,” Holt said. “We were really taken out of what we like to do. We got killed on the boards in the first half, and the other problem was offensively you have to be able to score at the other end.”

Nieman finished with 19, Stone had 14 and Susan Woolf added 11. Lewis and Block each scored 16.

Boise St. 73, Idaho 61

Idaho (15-15)- Gussett 1-6 2-5 4, Nieman 7-13 5-6 19, Stone 6-11 2-5 14, Johnson 4-8 0-0 9, Woolf 4-8 0-0 11, Newman 0-0 0-0 0, McDaniel 0-3 2-2 2, Purcell 0-1 0-0 0, Benad 0-0 0-0 0, Rico 0-0 0-0 0, Bloom 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 23-53 11-18 61.

Boise St. (19-9) - Lewis 3-6 7-9 16, Brydges 3-7 0-0 6, Block 7-14 2-2 16, Gray 3-7 2-2 8, Sumlin 2-7 2-3 7, Fortenberry 2-4 0-0 4, Barrios 1-3 0-0 3, Umthun 2-3 6-10 10, Freeman 0-1 0-0 0, Rainis 0-2 0-1 0, Durieux 0-0 0-0 0, Hodges 0-1 3-4 3. Totals 23-55 22-31 73.

Halftime - Boise St. 40, Idaho 25. 3-Point Goals - Idaho 4-10 (Woolf 3-6, Johnson 1-2, Gussett 0-1, Nieman 0-1), Boise St. 5-10 (Lewis 3-5, Barrios 1-2, Sumlin 1-3. Fouled Out - Gussett, Johnson, Brydges. Rebounds - Idaho 29 (Nieman 7), Boise St. 43 (Block 9). Assists - Idaho 16 (Gussett, Johnson 4), Boise St. 18 (Lewis 5). Total Fouls - Idaho 28, Boise St. 16. A - NA

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BIG WEST WOMEN Thursday’s semifinals BSU 73, Idaho 61 UC Santa Barbara 95, Nevada 88 (OT) Saturday’s championship Semifinal winners, 1 p.m.