Vandals take the long road to find opponents

The Idaho Vandals are off to a 3-5 start, which isn’t too bad considering just two games have been at home.

There was a string of 16 days starting with a Thanksgiving tournament at New Mexico when the Vandals spent four nights in Moscow.

But the travel is taking its toll.

After going to North Carolina for the East Carolina Lady Pirate Invitational, the Vandals had to turn around and go to Utah Valley State and Idaho State, where the Vandals lost in overtime.

“The stupidest travel you could have ever done,” veteran coach Mike Divilbiss said. “I told my kids afterward, I owe you an apology, this one is on me.”

What is interesting is his take on why the Vandals have to travel so much. Divilbiss firmly believes some teams ducked the Vandals because of the presence of scoring machine Emily Faurholt and point guard extraordinaire Leilani Mitchell.

“This is a darn tough schedule, which is the product of having trouble finding people who will play us because we have Emily and Leilani,” Divilbiss said.

“We try to go to some tournaments so we can play on some neutral courts.”

Faurholt, a senior post, led the nation in scoring as a sophomore at more than 25 points a game and was third last year at 23.2.

That has put her on the Wooden Award Watch List for the second straight year. Her production coincides with the arrival of point guard Mitchell, whose race up the Vandals’ career lists in a number of categories has put her on the list for the Liberman Award for top point guards in the country.

The Vandals are going to hit their league schedule with 11 games under their belt, just three at home, and that includes Gonzaga.

“The best team we have played so far, we beat and we got to play at home (Gonzaga 69-62),” Divilbiss said. “It makes a big difference; 70-percent of Division I games are won by the home team. That’s why we couldn’t find anyone to play us. People in the west wouldn’t play. They all want to play next year and the year after, but we have a hard time scheduling.”

Upon further examination of the schedules for the area teams, Idaho’s woes mirror their rivals.

Gonzaga has had just one home game and among its 14 non-league games only four are at home, including Eastern Washington.

Eastern has 13 non-league games, five at home, but that includes Idaho and Washington State.

Three of WSU’s 10 games are at home.

Quiet week

Idaho and Washington State (6-2) take finals week off and don’t play again until next Tuesday. Eastern (4-3), which had finals last week, played at Washington Monday night and is home against Santa Clara on Thursday. Gonzaga (3-7) is home for just the second time on Sunday when Montana visits.

Tip-ins

After missing three games because of emergency gallbladder surgery, Brittney Osborn came off the bench and scored 13 points in Eastern Washington’s win at Portland. … Gonzaga has used five different starting lineups. The latest has senior Katie Prichard making the first four starts of her career … The Zags have blocked at least one shot in 45 straight games and have 45 for the season.

•Freshmen Katie Appleton and Amanda DuRocher have played a big role in getting the Cougs to six wins, matching the total victories from each of the last two seasons. DuRocher had 19 points with five 3-pointers in an overtime win at Boise State. That’s the game she was lost with a broken right wrist. The player she replaced, junior Adriane Ferguson from Mead, is out with a broken pinky. … Idaho set a school record with 14 3s in a 99-70 win at Utah Valley State with Leilani Mitchell tying a school record with seven – on eight attempts. The Vandals have made at least two 3s in 93 straight games, averaging 6.6 in that time.