“It felt good to break my career high and knowing that I went out and gave it my all,” Otero said. “Of course, it would have been a lot better to have won — it was our first time on national television and we know what we are capable of, we just didn’t take it all the way.”

The Idaho Vandals fell behind early to Louisiana Tech and couldn’t pull out a win despite drawing within seven points during a 20-5 run late in the game, dropping the contest 63-56.

“Our shot selection was horrendous,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “We are not a team that can play one-on-one basketball.”

Wednesday night’s game was the last home game for seniors Otero, volleyball star Debbie Pederson, Amy Eisses and soccer sensation Anna Sandman. Pederson walked onto the team in the middle of the season and has been a steady contributor for the Vandals, while Sandman came to help with practice.

Otero, who has been the heart and soul of the Vandals in her four years at Idaho, dropped a career-high 18 points, dishing out six assists and grabbing four rebounds in her final home game.

“She was the best player on the floor on both teams,” Newlee said. “She played with a lot of heart, a lot of energy, made her shots, handled the ball and got assists, got some steals – she was all over the place.”

The Vandals got a scare early in the game when sophomore Shaena Kuehu was knocked down, hitting her head hard on the court. Kuehu remained lying on the court for half a minute as the crowd watched in muted dismay before erupting in cheers as she got up and walked to the bench, by her own power but clearly in distress.

She was forced to sit out the remainder of the first half, and much of the second before making a late-game comeback.

“I didn’t figure she would be back tonight — I thought ‘oh man, please, please let her be ready to go in the WAC tournament.’” Newlee said. “She has a huge knot on the back of her head, but lucky no concussion symptoms.”

Kuehu’s injury was followed by flat play from the Vandals, which opened the door for a 15-2 La Tech run in the middle of the first and set the stage for a 22-point lead, which was simply too big for the Vandals to overcome.

The bitter loss was partially redeemed by strong play from Bianca Cheever. Cheever played a strong defensive games, but it was back-to-back three-point shots which has Newlee excited.

“It was nice to see her make a couple of shots,” Newlee said. “There was the Cheever we saw earlier in the year — hopefully that Cheever gets on the bus and the airplane to Reno with us.”

Otero said that, while the loss stings, she is proud to have gone out in such style and been a part of the Vandal tradition.

“I’m really thankful that I had the opportunity to stay here,” Otero said. “When the coaches came in, they still stuck with me and gave me a chance — I’m just really glad to be a part of the Idaho history.”

For Newlee, the feeling is mutual.

“I’ve never had a kid practice and play as hard for as long as she has. She has done everything I’ve asked her to do and more — we are going to miss her, ” Newlee said with a deep breath and a composing pause. ” I wish I would have been here…I wish we had one more year with her.”

The Vandals have won three straight games and five of their last seven, to put them at 7-7 in the WAC — in sight of a top-half seed for next week’s conference tournament. But to get there, they’ll have to get past the always-tough Lady Techsters.

Will Charlotte Otero have a magical Senior Night in Moscow? Find out with us, as we’ll have all the action for you live, with pregame at 7:30 p.m., tip at 8.

Click here for Vandal Nation Live commentary, analysis and chat.

The Aggies are 6-6 in conference play, sitting in fourth in the WAC standings. Idaho is 4-7, in seventh — a victory this afternoon would put the Vandals just half a game back from Boise State with four contests remaining.

In the two teams’ previous meeting, Idaho upset the Aggies in Las Cruces, 68-65. Jon Newlee’s squad, led by Charlotte Otero, Rachele Kloke and Yinka Olorunnife, will look to repeat the feat on home hardwood.

We’ll have pregame coverage starting at 2:30 p.m., tip at 3.

Click here for Vandal Nation Live commentary, analysis and chat!

No matter, because it was time for Yinka Olorunnife to have another monster game in the paint.

The Vandal women overpowered Hawaii this afternoon in the Cowan Spectrum, 74-59, on the strength of Yinka Olorunnife’s third career 25-point performance. The junior post once again tied her career scoring high and collected a double-double with 14 rebounds. With the victory, Idaho improved to 6-17 overall, 4-6 in Western Athletic Conference play. The Vandals are now all but assured of a berth in next month’s WAC Tournament.

We’ll have a complete postgame wrap later, but here’s video interviews with Jon Newlee, Yinka Olorunnife and Rachele Kloke.

“What was going in my head (during the time-out) was we have been in this position so many times,” Newlee said. “I told the players ‘we are going to close this one out and we are winning this ball game and not giving it away.’”

They Vandals didn’t disappoint.

After heartbreaking losses to La Tech in overtime and Utah State at the end of regulation, the Vandals finally clamped down and held Nevada, whose only loss was to unbeaten Fresno State, to a measly 26 percent shooting in the second half, including an abysmal 18 percent from three-point range as Idaho brought down Nevada by a score of 61-53.

“The first thing I said (to the team) is that I am so happy to not be standing here and saying we gave another game away,” Newlee said. “I am proud of the way the team responded throughout the close games and the breaks have finally started to come our way.”

The entire game was a see-saw affair, with eight lead changes as both teams traded punches early, with Idaho entering halftime down by one point. The Vandals turned up the heat in the second, out-shooting Nevada for a eight-point lead with under two minutes to go before Nevada’s Tahnee Robinson nailed a perfect three to bring Nevada within striking distance at 57-52.

“When she (Robinson) banked in that three, I thought, well, here we go again,” Newlee said. “It was the same as in San Jose, when they banked in a three from the top and, well there you go.”

Instead of folding, the Vandals came out of the huddle and played arguably their best defense of the year — Nevada would get just one point in the next two minutes, off a free-throw.

Rachele Kloke said the team took the best parts of their game against La Tech and worked on transition play.

“It feels amazing,” Kloke said. “Nevada is a great team — it was a big win for us and it will give us more momentum.”

The Vandals, despite being out-matched size-wise in almost every game, have hung in with the best in the conference, losing their past their past three games by single digits. Newlee said the team played hard but the breaks just never seemed to happen for the team until tonight.

“Char’s layup was a great example — it hung on the rim and went in,” Newlee said. “All year, that ball has been hanging on the rim and coming off.”

The Vandals took their high-pressure defense, which was so effective against La Tech, and applied it to Nevada to hold them to a paltry 34 percent shooting from the floor.

On the other end, Idaho nailed 44 percent of their shots and an astounding 41 percent from three-point range.

Idaho was once again led by Rachele Kloke, who tallied up 17 points along with six rebounds. Yinka Olorunnife was a force at both ends, tallying 15 points for the Vandals cause as well as shutting down Nevada’s top scorers, and Shaena Kuehu rounded out the Vandals top-three with 12 points as well as leading the team with 8 rebounds.

“Sometime you feel like that black could is over your head,” Newlee said. “But you have to make your own luck with effort and playing smart, and I thought we did that tonight.”

The Vandals have an entire week to study film and work on their game before heading to California with a showdown against unbeaten Fresno State, which sits firmly in first place in the WAC.

“He (Idaho coach Jon Newlee) told us to stay with the players, don’t foul, and contend shots,” said junior post Yinka Olorunnife. “We were very confident that we were headed into overtime.”

Utah State worked their way down to the Vandals zone, trying to exploit an opening. There was none to be had. As the clock winded down, the ball found its way to the hands of Utah State’s TaHara Williams, who had not missed a shot all night.

She faked a shot, twirled around an Idaho defender and let loose a jump-shot as time expired. Fans held their breath as Williams’s shot sailed overhead towards the basket, arching perfectly in the air before falling through the hoop.

Then there was silence.

With that silence, Idaho dropped to 2-4 in the WAC, losing in heartbreaking fashion to Utah State by a final score of 57-55.

“It’s devastating,” Olorunnife said. ” One possession losses really get to you, but to lose at the buzzer, yeah… it’s the worst.”

The bitter loss comes after a valiant comeback from the Vandals, who dug themselves a hole early yet came back to tie at halftime and keep the second half competitive, in a game where there was very little to fault for the loss. The Vandals shot a respectable 45 percent from the floor, more than doubled Utah State on points off turnovers and tied for point in the paint.

“The very good teams make the plays at the end,” Newlee said. “You got to make your own luck — we didn’t get the loose balls and we didn’t make our own luck tonight.”

Newlee said he was proud of his squad for battling back from several deficits, and said he feels the team is a much-improved team over the squad at the start of the conference season.

The game was the first action for Debbie Pederson, who joined the team in late December and has been practicing ever since, but had yet to see game time. Pederson said she was working on adjusting to the pace of college basketball and learning the plays, but was happy to get out on to the court.

“I was trying not to get nervous and trying to stay calm and play,” Pederson said. “I just wanted to come in and help out the team as much as I could.”

Pederson played seven minutes and tallied her first two points of her college basketball career on free-throws, along with getting two defensive rebounds.

Newlee said he was impressed with the way Pederson played, despite acknowledging the fact that he has to limit the amount of plays they can do with her.

“I thought she did a great job, battled hard, and held her own against their (Utah State’s) big kids,” Newlee said. “I told her before the game to be mentally ready to play — I was very happy with the way she played tonight.”

At 6’3″, Pederson is the tallest player in Vandal uniform to see action this season along with fellow 6’3″ teammate Ally Sisel-Kumpfer. She adds some much-needed strength and height for the Vandals.

There is little time to grieve for the Vandals, who square off against Louisiana Tech on Saturday before coming home for a grudge-match against Nevada.

We’ll have all the action from courtside in the Cowan Spectrum. Join us for pregame coverage at 6:30 p.m., tip at 7.

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“They were back-to-back nail-biters,” Newlee said.

After a thrilling overtime win against Boise State, the Vandals came into New Mexico with confidence, which showed on the court as the Vandals passed the ball and wielded a balanced scoring attack for the second straight game, defeating New Mexico State in Las Cruces, 68-65.

“I think the success in the Boise State game really gave our team a sense of confidence when this game got close,” Newlee said. “The same scenario played out here and we were able to handle the pressure.”

The Vandals started the game right where they left off last week, staying scorching-hot from the field and nailing just under 50 percent of their shots, including several opportune three-pointers. Idaho confused the Aggie’s defense with unselfish play by rotating the ball to every player, an attribute that Newlee credits to the team’s embarrassing loss to Hawaii late last week.

“I think they realized after the Hawaii game that we’re not just going to go in and beat people one-on-one and that sharing the ball is the only way we’re going to be successful,” Newlee said. “We did a great job of sharing the basketball tonight, taking great shots, and making the shots.”

Idaho’s offense was led by Rachele Kloke and Yinka Olorunnife, both with 14 points apiece.
More importantly, Idaho showed its depth for the second straight game as all five starters tallied up 10 or more points, with Bianca Cheever adding 13 points and going a blazing-hot 50 percent from three-point range.

Shaena Kuehu played an all-around game. Not only did she contribute 12 points, four of which came on huge back-to-back coast-to-coast plays after the Aggies hit two 3-pointers to put Idaho down by nine, but Kuehu also led the team with eight rebounds, all on the defensive side.

Idaho’s defense was stifling, limiting New Mexico State’s leading scorer, Crystal Boyd, to only eight points and, more impressively, to only one basket until the final two minutes of the game.

Not content with slowing down one player, Idaho put the pressure on early and often, limiting Boyd, Jasmine Lowe and Madison Spence, who came in averaging 42 points per game, to just 25 points. Newlee said the Vandals focused on the transition game of New Mexico State and it paid dividends by containing the damage their top three players managed to inflict.

“We talked about extending the zone and not giving them the wide-open looks and letting them get into rhythm,” Newlee said. “They’re all rhythm shooters, and in the stretch where they went up, it was because they were in rhythm and in transition. We finally got some good ball pressure and that was a factor in getting them out of rhythm.”

Up next for Idaho is a meeting with San Jose State later this week. The Vandals will be looking to get their first sweep on the road, and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time.

“What we talked about after the game was not losing our momentum,” Newlee said. “We know we’ve got a chance to sweep a road trip, and that’s pretty special in this league.”

The win, just the third of the year for the Vandals, was boosted by a career night from post Yinka Olorunnife, who scored 25 points (tying her career high) to go with 10 rebounds. The Vandals shot 50 percent from beyond the arc overall, and were a lights-out 8-for-11 at one point in the first half.

We’ll have a complete postgame story shortly, but for now, here’s video interviews from after the game.

Olorunnife and point guard Charlotte Otero:

Coach Jon Newlee:

It might have been the most complete game for the Vandals, but yet again they couldn’t close the deal. They performed particularly well, though, given the absence of two starters: point guard Charlotte Otero and post Yinka Olorunnife, who were suspended by coach Jon Newlee for unspecified conduct detrimental to the team.

Jessica Graham led the Vandals with 18 points on 7-14 shooting, grabbed 6 rebounds and made 3 blocks.

We’ll have a complete postgame report tomorrow.

“This is one we had but let it get away,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “We had some bad defensive breakdowns getting off those shooters in a crucial, crucial stretch.

The tide started to turn at the end of the first half. Saint Mary’s defense shored up and closed off passing lanes with putting physical pressure on the ball.

“I thought we started out great and got after the ball real well,” Newlee said. “But we the one bad stretch where they got back into it.”

The Gaels’ offense snapped out of its slump and nailed 44 percent of their shots from the floor, a number that would double in the second half. Despite the strong surge, Idaho held on and entered halftime tied 28-28.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as Idaho would come. The roles reversed in the second half with Saint Mary’s coming out strong on both sides of the ball while Idaho seemed content to watch Saint Mary’s players shoot 3-pointers.

“We started the second half not competing, like the game was over, and that really cost us,” Newlee said. “That’s lack of leadership on the basketball court.”

Saint Mary took full advantage of the slumping Idaho defense with a lights-out shooting performance. With their point guards wide open, Saint Mary’s shot an astounding 82 percent from the floor in the second half. Five different players registered double-digit points for Saint Mary’s, which also got 21 points from their bench, a far cry from the 4 points tallied by Idaho’s bench.

“Our people left the shooters, and it killed us in the defensive end,” Newlee said. “(Saint Mary’s) made every shot they took, it seemed, but when you are shooting wide open shots, it gets pretty easy — the basket gets pretty big.”

Despite the defensive collapse, Idaho was in it for the entire game. The Vandals showed flashes of speed by compiling 14 steals and turning the 12 turnovers committed by Saint Mary’s into 13 points.

Rachele Kloke had another fantastic game for the Vandals, registering a team-high 19 points, and Bianca Cheever put on a show with a mix of 3-pointers, jump-shots and lay-ups which combined for 16 points, in addition to having 3 steals.

Despite the record (Idaho is now 1-8) Newlee said the team is playing well and rising to the challenge. Every team Idaho has played has been a winning team, Newlee said, and he expects the experience from this pre-season to go a long way when Western Athletic Conference play starts.

“It can only help us in the future, and I think it will help us once we get into the WAC,” Newlee said. “But by the same token, I’m tired of getting close and saying we let it get away — these guys need to learn how to win and how to push through when the game gets tight.”

We’ll have a complete game story from Ilya Pinchuk this afternoon, but for now here’s raw video from the postgame media scrum.

Thoughts from Jon Newlee:

Thoughts from Rachele Kloke:

Thoughts from Shaena Kuehu:

“We moved the ball great tonight and had some great looks,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “Unfortunately, some of them just didn’t go in.”

After a sluggish start cost the Vandals (1-7) the game against Colorado State, Newlee said the team worked on making the extra pass and pulling defenders out of position.

The hard work paid off, as the Vandals mercilessly shredded 5-0 Wyoming’s defense with crisp passes which led to open 3-point shots.

Rachele Kloke set the tone from the get-go, downing an open 3-point shot to start off the scoring. Kanisha Bello and Bianca Cheever followed up with 3-pointers of their own, and the Vandals found themselves on top by ten point late in the first half.

“Kanisha had her best game of the year so far,” Newlee said. “She came in and gave us a good spark.”

Not to be outdone, Idaho’s defense mauled Wyoming in the first half with stifling play, forcing Wyoming to run out the shot clock and causing four turnovers, which the Vandals used to build up a 25-15 lead.

“We played good for longer stretches than we have played all year,” Newlee said.

While Idaho set the tone for the first half, the second half turned out to be all Wyoming, which came out shooting and used a 6-0 run in the first three minutes to close the gap. The Vandals collapsed defensively for stretches of the second half, and Wyoming’s Hillary Carlson made them pay as she put up 20 of Wyoming’s 41 points in the second half.

“Carlson really took it to us,” Newlee said. “Give them full credit, they hit their big shots when they needed to.”

Yinka Olorunnife had another strong game, contributing 6 points, 10 rebounds and 2 steals, but ran into foul trouble early in the second half, eventually fouling out with three and a half minutes to remaining.

“Yinka battled a bit, but got into foul trouble,” Newlee said. “That really hurt us.”

Newlee said the defense still has some kinks to work out, but is improving every game. Newlee has been hard at work finding time to rotate his newer freshman players to give them a feel for the system. It’s taken longer than he wished, but Newlee said the improvement is evident in every game.

“Even though we have four players back from last year, it only takes one player to screw up the defense,” Newlee said. “Slowly but surely, our new guys are learning — it’s taking longer because we are infusing at least three new players.”

The biggest defensive obstacle for Newlee to overcome is Idaho’s high turnover rate. Idaho turned the ball over 16 times, which Wyoming converted into 23 points.

“We were too careless with the ball tonight,” Newlee said. “That is what really hurt us.”

Despite shooting a respectable 36 percent from the floor, lay-ups continue to be a problem for Idaho, Newlee acknowledges.

“It hurts — we run stuff, and there we are again,” Newlee said. “To win, you got to make those, and it hurts when you lose close games — you have to finish.”

Idaho’s busy schedule continues with a home-stand against Saint Mary’s at noon Sunday, which will be in the Memorial Gym once again, due to football practice in the Kibbie Dome in anticipation of a bowl bid.

“We lost the game in the first ten minutes,” Newlee said. “It’s frustrating — we lost track of their shooters and played tired.”

Idaho’s offensive struggles were on display early in the first half, shooting for 32 percent. The Vandals (1-6) managed to take the lead in the first minutes of the game, but a defensive collapse led to turnovers and fast-breaks which Colorado State (5-2) took full advantage of.

The Rams shot a staggering 55 percent from the floor, including sinking seven 3-pointers to put them up 41-26 at the end of the first half.

“We didn’t find their shooters, we didn’t sprint back in transition, and they were hitting wide open 3′s,” Newlee said. “When you go down 18, it’s a big hole to come back from.”

Despite the deficit, the Vandals came out charged and ready in the second half. Led by Yinka Olorunnife — who set a career record in blocks with 5 and contributed 9 points as well as 6 rebounds — Idaho rattled CSU into shooting just 21 percent from the floor in the second half.

Olorunnife took charge in the second half with aggressive play on both ends of the court. On defense, Olorunnife blocked five CSU shots, including a spectacular rejection of a 3-pointer late in the second half with the Vandals trailing by just two, which was met with loud cheers and a standing ovation from the crowd.

With strong defensive pressure, the Vandals pulled within two points with five minutes remaining, but ran out of steam in the final minutes, giving up back-to-back 3-pointers to CSU.

“We got aggressive and found their shooters, and got all the way back — we were right there, but then we give up two 3-pointers,” Newlee said. “We can’t take plays off, everybody has to contribute and everyone has to come ready to play — until we do that we aren’t going to get many wins.”

Newlee was particularly happy with Olorunnife’s performance in the game. She showed flashes of her old game, Newlee said, but rolled her ankle right when she was playing her best.

Olorunnife said she has been off her game lately, but was happy to get back into the groove.

“The first few games, I’ve been having a hard time,” Olorunnife said. “Things just weren’t going my way, but I finally relaxed and started to play basketball without thinking too much.”

Newlee was also impressed with Charlotte Otero’s performance, as well as three-point extraordinaire Bianca Cheever, who nailed 4 of 8 3-point attempts during the game.

The Vandals held Mountain West Conference-leading scorer Kim Mestdagh to only 11 points, but CSU did what good teams do and fielded other players to pick up the slack. With double-coverage on Mestdagh, CSU’s Bonnie Barbee found room to maneuver and made Idaho pay by going a lights-out 6-of-8 from downtown and putting up 20 points to lead the team.

Idaho was led by Rachele Kloke, who found room in the second half and put up 16 points to lead the comeback.

The second half showed Idaho’s talent, but Newlee said it’s hard to dig a hole and expect to come back from it.

Newlee will have one full day to motivate the team to a strong start against Wyoming, which comes into Memorial Gym unbeaten. Wyoming’s multi-pronged attack, led by four scorers averaging double-digit points per game, will be a huge test for an Idaho defense which has been enigmatic at times. It will be the fifth game for Idaho in seven days. That contest tips off Thursday at 7 p.m.

We’ll have a complete postgame story from Ilya Pinchuk tonight, but for now, here’s video interviews with Idaho coach Jon Newlee and junior post Yinka Olorunnife.

Vandal Nation Live will bring you all the action from courtside, with pregame coverage at 6:30 p.m., tip-off at 7. Join us for commentary, analysis and chat!

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While we can’t fault the decision-making here, it’s disappointing because it represents a blown opportunity for Vandal basketball to put on a marquee showcase.

The Pilots are the first nationally-ranked non-conference team to visit Moscow in at least 50 years, and possibly the first ever. This could be — should be — a premier game for the Vandals, a chance to play against one of the nation’s best teams on our difficult home court in front of thousands of fans.

Instead, it’ll be shoehorned into an admittedly-historic but ridiculously-undersized 1,500-seat gym, meaning tickets will be extremely limited for Idaho’s best non-conference home game of the season. Thousands of Vandal fans will be left out in the cold — and students, in particular, are likely to be shut out, given the requirements to seat the season ticketholders.

Students will be required to pick up hard tickets, though the details have yet to be worked out. We’ll keep you posted.

As a televised opportunity for the Vandals, our program’s facilities will be shown as second-rate at best — there are a good many Division II home courts that put Memorial Gym to shame.

This problem wasn’t anticipated, of course, because nobody thought our football team might be good enough to get into a bowl game. Whoops.

Let this debacle be a wake-up call to our administration: if the Idaho Vandals are expected to compete and win at the top level of American college sports, they need facilities worthy of championship teams. That means an arena Verlin and Newlee’s squads can call home.

With a half-empty Memorial Gym watching their every move, the Vandals simply melted down and collapsed, losing to the Bobcats 70-58.

“We just didn’t show up for this basketball game,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said.

It was more of the same story for the Vandals as they were kept off the score sheet and dominated by MSU. The Vandals scored one field goal in the first 13 minutes, and their season-long shooting problems came back to haunt them, as they shot a disastrously low 18 percent in the first half.

Unlike last game against Eastern Washington, where neither team came off shooting well, MSU wasted no time in digging a grave for the Vandals. With five and a half minutes left in the first half, MSU held a 33-9 advantage.

The Vandals showed life in the dying moments of the first half, going on a 10-point hot streak, capped by Emily Doran’s 3-pointer with 33 seconds left to cut MSU’s lead to 37-22.

Idaho got its head in the game in the second half with Bianca Cheever drilling a 3-pointer right off the bat as the Vandals put defensive pressure on MSU. Recovering from their first-half mishaps, the Vandals shot an impressive 50 percent throughout the second.

The rest of the second half was a back-and-forth affair, which was capped with the Vandals going on a 13-point hot streak and pulling within 10 points with three minutes to go.

The hole was too deep, however, and with a minute remaining and still trailing, Newlee had to have his team foul to have a chance. It was not to be, as MSU downed all six of their free-throws to put the game out of reach for the Vandals.

Newlee said after the game he was pleased with how his team played in stretches. For 10 or 12 minutes of the game, Newlee said, the team played up to their potential.

“Once we did and played hard and made the extra pass and got the ball going and played defense and got active then we did a great job,” Newlee said.

The Vandal’s certainly showed potential in the second half, but the trick is to maintain the same pressure for the entire game, Newlee said.

Newlee continued to expand his depth, playing ten players in the game, compared to playing eight against Eastern Washington. Shaena Kuehu led the bench, chipping in 13 points and 5 rebounds, but little other help came from the bench. Rachele Kloke led the way for the Vandals with 16 points and 6 rebounds.

Despite the lopsided loss, Newlee said it could have been much worse, and he was impressed by the team.

“We could have lost this game by 40 points,” Newlee said. “We got a group that came together and decided to play with some pride and they did.”

The road does not get easier for the Vandals, who take a week-long break before traveling to the World Vision Classic in Texas. The Vandals will face a tough test right off the bat, as they are set to play  nationally-ranked Baylor on Friday in the first game of the tournament.

“We lost that game in the first half with our offensive execution and, once again, our missed point-blank shots,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “There were seven missed layups that we charted in the first half.”

The Vandal’s recovered from an ugly first half, where both teams combined for an astounding 42 missed shots and 19 turnovers, to get into shooting form for the majority of the second half.

The Vandal’s combined for just 15 points in the first half, but Eastern Washington didn’t fare much better, putting up only 17 points themselves.

“It was a miracle that we were only down by two at halftime,” Newlee said.

The game looked to be headed for another blowout when Eastern Washington came out blitzing in the second half to extend their lead to 24-19.

Instead, the Vandal’s tightened up defensively and turned the tables on Eastern Washington, going on a 17-2 run in the middle of the second period to put them up by 12 points with under seven minutes to go.

With the game firmly in hand, victory seemed certain, but Eastern Washington wasn’t done yet. With strong offensive pressure, the Eagles clawed their way back to force overtime in the dying moments of the game.

“It was just a meltdown,” Newlee said. “Nobody on our team took charge on the floor, nobody stepped up and led us when we had that bad stretch — that was disappointing.”

Idaho helped the Eagle’s cause with seven turnovers in the final seven minutes of the game. The flashy offense gave way to mediocre shots, which translated to the Vandal’s tallying only one shot during that timeframe.

Idaho’s Charlotte Otero had a chance to end it with two seconds remaining as she deftly maneuvered around the Eagle’s defense and went for a lay-up, but it swirled around the basket before bouncing harmlessly to the court.

Idaho’s ovetime fortunes proved to be no better, as the offense once again bogged down in missed shots, turnovers, and foul trouble.

Despite the lack of discipline, Idaho kept it close till the end. Trailing by three with three seconds on the clock, Bianca Cheever took possession, drove into the Eagle’s zone and fired off a desperate three-pointer with double-overtime on the line. It was not to be, however, as Cheever’s shot ricocheted of the backboard and time expired with both teams fighting for the rebound

Cheever led Idaho with her first double-double game and Newlee, who had said he wanted to play with depth, fielded eight players for this game.

He was rewarded with redshirt freshman Jessica Graham’s stellar play as she contributed 9 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal.

There will be no rest for the weary, as the Vandals have two days before facing off against an upstart Montana State team that downed California State University-Bakersfield in their season opener. The Bulldogs are 2-0 as they take on Brigham Young University today before facing Idaho on Sunday.

“Let’s go Vandals” was the cheer which emanated from the mouths of every member of the Vandal band and audience in Memorial Gym as Idaho won the jump ball to start the game. As customary, the band kept cheering until a Vandal player scored the first point for their team.

For two and a half long minutes the band cheered.

Idaho’s slow start set the tone early, and in the end their inability to connect shots buried them.

Consider this: The Vandals shot an anemic 27 percent from the court over the course of the game. The Vandals didn’t fare much better at the free-throw line, clocking in at 47 percent.

“That’s the worst that a team I’ve coached has shot from the free-throw line — ever,” Idaho coach Jon Newlee said. “We even shot 300 extra free throws this week, so I don’t know.”

The Vandals managed to lead the game only twice, early in the first half. By the mid-point of the game, however, their advantage had been buried by the blitzing transitional play of the Bulldogs. Idaho didn’t register a point for an 11-minute stretch during the first half, and trailed 32-22 at halftime, a deficit they would never recover.

“I thought we came out, competed, and played pretty good,” Newlee said. “But we missed 13 lay-ups that we charted on the bench, and it just deflates a team when you don’t make lay-ups — those cost us.”

The Vandals played improved defense, Newlee said, but were no match for Gonzaga’s play under the basket. The Vandals never found their groove in rebounding, allowing Gonzaga recover time after time.

“The lack of our box-out really hurt us,” Newlee said. “We got into a jumping contest with them, and obviously we are going to lose that — they are big, athletic and talented physically.”

Idaho went on a brief hot streak at the start of the second to pull within 7 points, but the offense sputtered again, going over six minutes without scoring during which time Gonzaga piled on 15 points, which put the game out of reach for the Vandals.

Newlee said despite the loss, he felt the defense was hugely improved over the previous week’s game.

“I liked our defense tonight, and I thought that we did a good job of getting out to people,” Newlee said. “We lost their shooters in transition, though.”

Idaho’s aggressive defense showed through with 16 fouls, but Newlee said many of the fouls were on second-chance opportunities coming off of the rebounds, a statistic he would like to see lowered. Newlee said there was still room for improvement, but was overall pleased with the pressure on the defensive side of the ball.

The Vandals have two days to retool and find a cure for their offensive woes before traveling up north to face Eastern Washington on Thursday. Newlee will look for more depth from his bench; The Vandals played only seven players against Gonzaga, but Newlee said there is talent to be had on the bench.

“As soon as some other kids on the bench pick it up in practice and can help us, that will really help our depth,” Newlee said. “I want to go at least eight or nine deep, at least in stretches, but we are not able to do it right now because our guys in practice are not showing that they are ready to get on the floor.”

Newlee said it was a tough test to play against Gonzaga, but a challenge that he and the team relished. The flaws exposed will need to be address, but Newlee is fully confident the team will come out strong against Eastern Washington.

“There is no question that team (Gonzaga) will win the West Coast Conference, they will be in the NCAA Tournament, and they will be in the second round, if not the Sweet 16,” Newlee said. “Playing a team like this… man, these guys and Baylor will the best teams we play in the pre-WAC season.”

Join us for live, play-by-play commentary, analysis and chat starting at 6:30 p.m.

The evening’s first celebration came after the Vandal women took down NAIA Eastern Oregon in a slugfest, 61-43. Two hours later, Idaho’s men claimed an 87-61 victory over Division II St. Martin’s.

Neither win was perfect — the women struggled to find a shooting touch, while the men had trouble finding a defensive groove. But both squads well used the experience of 40 minutes on the hardwood against outside competition to prepare for their regular season openers next week. The men begin Nov. 13 at Utah, while the women open at home against Gonzaga on Nov. 16.

Idaho 87, St. Martin’s 61

Idaho coach Don Verlin was pleased with some aspects of his team’s performance in their one and only preseason exhibition tuneup, but he didn’t mince words when talking about their trouble spots.

“We have to get better defensively,” Verlin said. “We weren’t solid all night in post defense and I’m disappointed in how our post guys did there. We didn’t do a good enough job contesting shots, either. Give them some credit, (the Saints) are good, but they had wide-open looks.”

One place the Vandals weren’t lacking: offense. Idaho lit up the scoreboard, as four players hit double figures and one just missed out. Guard Steffan Johnson led the way with 14 points on 5-8 shooting, while guards Mac Hopson and Shawn Henderson and center Marvin Jefferson poured in a dozen apiece. Freshman center Kyle Barone nearly pulled off a double-double, scoring 9 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

Henderson, a JC transfer from North Idaho College, made an attention-getting debut in a Vandal uniform. He caught fire in the second half, going 5-for-5 at one point. Henderson finished 6-for-7 with 12 points while pulling down four rebounds and dishing out a pair of assists in 15 minutes of action.

“I just started feeling it and I got in the zone,” Henderson said. “Coach wanted me to attack the basket and that’s what I did. The shots started falling and that was that.”

Idaho 61, Eastern Oregon 43

If it’s possible to be disappointed with a victory, this would be it. The Vandals shot an awful 36 percent on the night, with stat lines like Bianca Cheever’s 2-for-10 and Yinka Olorunnife’s 1-for-8 being the rule. Nor was there much to smile about defensively — only endless bricks from the NAIA Mountaineers kept the game from being close. Coach Jon Newlee made his displeasure clear.

“We got so much to work on. With Gonzaga coming in here, it’s scary, to be honest with you,” Newlee said. “I didn’t like our defensive communication or our decision-making with the basketball. We had 18 turnovers against these guys and it wasn’t like they put a whole lot of pressure on us. That wasn’t bad execution, it was bad choices.”

This story will be continually updated.

Charlotte Otero

With a new coach, a history of failure and a ridiculously thin bench, not much was expected of the Idaho Vandals women’s basketball team last year.

But Jon Newlee’s squad shocked the Western Athletic Conference by posting its best performance since joining the WAC, going 13-15 (10-6 WAC) and earning a 3-seed in the WAC Tournament. Newlee was a deserving recipient of the WAC Coach of the Year award, despite the fact that the Vandals lost in the quarterfinals — the lack of depth finally showed through.

Key to the resurgence of Vandal women’s hoops was a 5-3 spark plug from San Diego: Charlotte Otero. Controlling the Vandals’ offense, Otero dished up 100 assists while playing an astounding and NCAA-leading 40.6 minutes per game — that’s right, she averaged more than a game a game, thanks to overtime games.

This year, the Vandals are looking for their first postseason berth since Pat Dobratz took them to the 1986 Women’s NIT Championship. Otero’s floor leadership will be key to that quest, and we sat down to talk with her about the coming season.

Vandal Nation: Talk about how your basketball career got started.

Charlotte Otero: I started playing in fifth grade. My best friend was playing, and I kind of went along with what she was doing. I really loved it, and I was just good at it. Our high school (San Diego High) was really good, we never lost a game in our league for four years. We were league champions all four years, went to the state tournament twice and lost once in the final. The experience was great — I got to play with big-time players like Charde Houston, who went to UConn and is now in the WNBA.

What brought you to the University of Idaho?

I was originally going to try going to a JC in Arizona. It was fairly close, it had a four day school week so I could come home and visit my family. I signed there, but then my high school coach said, “Go try Idaho, give it a chance.” I said, “I don’t want to go, it’s Idaho, I don’t even know what’s out there, I don’t even know where that is!” But they convinced me to come out on a visit, the day after I graduated high school, and that changed my mind — I wanted to come play up here.

San Diego to Moscow, that must have been quite a change.

To be honest, at first I hated it. It took some getting used to, but I love Moscow now, it’s such a second home. I really don’t see myself moving back to California. I don’t know where I’m going to stay, but I love the small town atmosphere and the snow’s even growing on me — for the first couple months, anyway!

Talk about the difference you’ve seen Jon Newlee make in the program, as compared to his predecessor, Mike Divilbiss.

Things are a lot different. Everything’s more fun, the game is more our style of play, the way I want to play. Before, it was all about slow it down, run this play, run that play. Now we run up and down the court all the time. It makes the game so much more fun to play and I’m sure it’s much more fun to watch. We also get a lot more support out of our coaching staff. Having coaches who have more experience and know what they’re doing has helped us as players, because we have much more confidence in what they’re telling us to do.

What was it like playing every minute of every game last year?

It was pretty crazy. I mean, it was pretty much the same my freshman year, but we had a much slower pace then. But I like being on the court and leading, it gets me so much more excited. If I ever come out, I won’t be happy about it… unless I’m cramping up! I feel like I can go the whole time. I love playing, it’s my last year here, why not?

All of you being out on the floor so much, and having such a thin bench, how did that affect you as a team?

I think it made our team come together. We were only playing six players and dealing with injuries was tough. At the beginning, we weren’t used to playing with each other and weren’t used to the system. We didn’t know exactly what the coaches wanted for awhile. Going from there to where we ended up, it makes me feel like “Well, if we did that well last year for our first season with Coach Newlee, what’s going to happen this year?” We can only really expect things to get better.

Newlee told me he expects you to step up and be the team leader this year. What’s that mean to you?

Last year, I spent a lot of time getting used to the coaching staff. This year, I know what the coaches expect out of me and I know what they want. Now that I know the system, I can lead our team out on the floor more. I love being that floor leader, I want to do that.

Are there any games you’re particularly looking forward to?

Well, we play Baylor in Texas, which is going to be a fun game. Like coach said, we have to play the best to beat the best. I’m looking forward to playing Portland again, and all those teams that we played last year at the beginning that we let slip away. We play Long Beach State in Long Beach, I have a lot of family coming up to see me there. The WAC is always going to be tough, and I’m excited to see how those teams have changed throughout the year, and adapt to those changes so we can beat them.

What difference will the team’s newfound depth make?

With having a lot more fresh legs, we can go uptempo even more than we did last year. We had to calm it down sometimes because people got tired, this year we can sub in and out and keep going as hard as we can. I feel like that means we can all play to our full potential. You know, we saw a big jump in attendance last year and I hope that continues this year, because we’re going to put on a really good show for the fans.

You had a really tough out in the WAC Tournament. Are you looking forward to avenging that?

Oh yeah, definitely. I’ve tried to block that game out of my memory by now, but I can’t wait to get back to the WAC. My goal this year is to win the WAC, period. It’s my last year here, and before it was really never in our reach. After last season I really feel like we can do this. Our team’s getting stronger while other teams are losing some of their top players. We have everyone back and we’re only getting better.

What are you majoring in, and what would you like to do after hoops?

I’m majoring in business marketing and minoring in advertising. My dream job would be doing advertising or marketing for Adidas or Gatorade or something like that. I’d love to stay in sports, preferably something to do with basketball, because I love being around the game.

Thanks, Charlotte!

Jon Newlee

Vandal Nation: It seems like this schedule has a bit of everything — Big 12 teams, regional foes and good home games.

Jon Newlee: I think we’ve got a packed, quality lineup. We’ve got reps from different leagues — the West Coast Conference, the Mountain West, the Big West, the Big Sky… we’re taking on Baylor, probably a top-5 preseason team with a 6-8 girl who can dunk. There’s 7 NCAA or NIT teams on that schedule. We need a tough schedule to get us ready for the Western Athletic Conference, because it’s going to come down to winning the WAC to get us in the tournament. We need to see how we stack up going in and get some good experience.

You’ve got home games with teams like Gonzaga, Portland and Colorado State — a pretty solid lineup. How’d that come together?

Some of it just worked out — a couple of these are return games from last year, like Montana State and Colorado State. St. Mary’s wanted to play us and Wyoming I used to play every year at Idaho State. (Wyoming coach) Joe Legerski is a good friend of mine and we wanted to get that going again. In the WAC, you have to average six home games per year or you get fined, and last year, when I got here, we only had five. I had to get seven this year to keep us out of trouble.

That seems like a big hurdle for scheduling.

Yeah, you know, we have to go and return a lot of these games next year and the policy might hurt us again. I think it’s a bad rule that hurts programs like ours. Hawai’i and Nevada have tournaments, Boise State can afford to buy games, but we don’t have it in the budget. New Mexico State and Fresno State I know are having the same problems — I know a lot of coaches aren’t happy with (the rule) and we’d like to get it changed.

Is the emphasis on regional matchups aimed at helping recruiting?

Playing games in the Northwest really helps everything. We’re trying to recruit hard in Washington and Oregon and give top players a chance to see us. At the same time, from a budget standpoint it’s good because we can bus to these games. With the economic times, any place you can save without really compromising your level of play, that’s a good thing to do.

What’s up with the Baylor tournament? They were a Sweet 16 team last year, and it definitely looks like a tough challenge.

We’re getting a really, really good guarantee to go down there and play Baylor, and that’s the main reason I got into it. Baylor has probably a top-5 recruiting class, they signed a 6-8 kid who’ll be eligible right away — that’s a team that’s a legitimate challenge for a national championship. It’ll be good experience for us, similar to going down and playing Texas Tech last year. We also get two extra games from that, being an exempt tournament — playing Lamar and Louisiana-Lafayette, they’re different types of teams than we get up here, with different styles of play. Playing against these southern teams now will help us if we get to the NCAA Tournament.

There’s a nice stretch in early December where you play four straight home games. Was that planned at all?

No, mainly it happened because the WAC schedule came out late and we just had to start scheduling games. With the way the facilities are (basketball doesn’t have use of the Cowan Spectrum until December) it just kind of fell into place. Hopefully, we can use that to get the momentum going, build the crowds and get a good streak going into WAC play.

How’s your team looking after the summer break?

At the first fall workout, my coaches and I all got together and the consensus was, “It looks totally different than our first spring here.” It’s really like night and day, the improvement all around. I’m really happy with the first week for most of my players — there’s a few who didn’t quite keep up with the workout schedule we gave them over the summer, and they’re going to have to work a little extra.

Workout schedule?

I send my players home over the summer — they go home with a workout plan, a conditioning plan, a strength plan, and I trust them to work hard at it. When they get back here, I find out who was with the program and who wasn’t.

You pulled off last season with, really, only six players taking most of the minutes. How nice is it to have some depth, finally?

It’s going to be huge. We’ve got size with Ally (Sisel-Kumpfer) and Jessica (Graham) — Yinka (Olorunnife) won’t be our biggest kid playing in games, and I like that. In the backcourt, Bianca (Cheever) has become a better player than she was for me at Idaho State, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her on court. Shaena (Kuehu) came back in great shape and she’s ready for the season. Then at point guard, I really feel like Charlotte (Otero) is ready to take on a leadership role on the floor. She’s comfortable with what I want out of her and what I want out of the offensive and defensive sets. We’re going to look to her all season to be that leader.

Congratulations on being named WAC Coach of the Year. In your first year here, you came in and have made one heck of a turnaround.

You know, thanks, I appreciate that. I’ve gotten some nice phone calls today from colleagues around the country, but I feel like it’s a total staff award. I’ll always think that, I have a great staff, great assistant coaches that do so much for us and our program. Without them, there would be no awards. So, I think it’s great, it’s a respect thing from the coaches in the league for the job we’ve done this year — I stress we have done the job as coaches.

Are you happy with the seeding, being fourth? I’ve been told the team is 7-1 this season against the teams in its bracket.

Once it gets to conference tournament time, I think you throw all that stuff out the window even though that’s good research by Spencer there — it’s all 0-0 when you get in there. You have to execute and you have to play extremely well. Everyone will come in very focused, I’m sure. There’s a lot of intensity in conference tournaments, everything gets ratcheted up and we’re going to have come ready to play our best basketball yet.

Do you feel like you’re in a position to do that right now?

I do, I feel like we’re playing well. In the Nevada game, I don’t think we did a great job with that, but they had a lot to do with it — they did a great job. We played well in Boise, we’re coming in on a good note and we’re confident in what we can do. If we stay within ourselves and play together, I think we got a good chance.

Depth has been a soft spot, string together three games in three days, how is that something you can prepare for?

Well, you know, I’m not really in a position to give anybody else more minutes. We play six, maybe seven if we have to. Those six are just going to have to suck it up and be ready to play a lot of minutes in the next, hopefully, three games if it goes that long. We won’t be taking people out or doing anything different than we’ve done for the 16 games in the league. We’ll be playing the same way, playing the same amount and just hope, if we keep going, that the adrenaline keeps people going. We’ll try to get some rest between games. Mentally, I think, you get worn down as well as physically. At this time of the year, with so much on the line, mentally everyone should stay sharp and should be ready to go.

Talk about the strong defensive performances. That’s been a strong spot all year, how does it play in the tournament?

I think it’s going to be huge. We’re going to have to continue to defend as we have. If we defend as a team, we do a pretty good job. It’s when we break down communication-wise, where we have lapses. We’re going to have to keep talking to each other, communicating. Every team is so familiar with everyone else in the tournament that everybody is going to be as prepared as they can be — it’s going to come down to communication and execution. Those are the two things we’re going to have to focus on in the next couple days before we get down there.

It seems like a pretty wide-open field on the women’s side. What are your thoughts on the possibilities?

It’s crazy – there’s no big monster team that’s dominated the whole league, that everybody’s afraid of. Everybody’s beaten everybody at one point, it seems like, or been close. With all the parity coming in, it’s going to come down to how those three days go. Everybody has a legitimate chance to win this thing. I’m coming out of a league where it was heavily weighted toward a couple of teams, Montana and Idaho State were the top teams for the last three or four years. It’s exciting to know that everybody has a legitimate chance to win.

At the beginning of the season, you predicted would have to compromise your system, because of limitations in personnel and the team’s lack of depth. Have you been able to install more of your system than you anticipated? How would you explain how things have picked up?

I think what happened is, everything was so new to our guys, it took them a long time to catch on to really what we wanted to do. We’re definitely not able to play at the pace I’d like to play, and that I was used to playing, so we’ve modified our offensive system in that regard. We’re still doing a lot of the same things at halfcourt that we’ve done — it took our guys longer to pick it up. Once they did that, and learned to trust each other and share the basketball and not try to do it on their own, I think they found success. That’s what got us going offensively.

From a defensive standpoint, I think we’ve done a good job — the defensive system was totally new, with mixing up playing man and  zones. When you put in multiple defensive systems, it’s going to take longer to get working smoothly. By the time we got into conference play, we had enough practices and games under our belt where our players felt comfortable doing what we wanted them to do. We kind of took off from there.

Have any of your players surprised you with their performances?

You know, I don’t think so. They’re all new to me. I think if I’d coached them for a couple years and they’d had the performance I’d seen before, then maybe they would surprise me. I had high expectations for all the returners that were here, and really the two new ones that I brought in.

Shaena (Kuehu) has done a great job of adapting to this level quicker than I thought she would. I figured Derisa (Taleni) would step it up — you figure the second year of a junior college player is a big improvement. I hope that’s true and I hope she gets even better next year. The other newcomers were all young players, so I felt like if they bought into what we were doing, talent-wise I thought they could do it. The challenge would be whether they could buy in to our system and do the work. Fortunately for all of us, they have.

Talk about Yinka Olorunnife and her outstanding rebounding.

She’s done a great job for us. She’s fearless, she’s tough and when the ball goes up, she’s going to get after it. She has the nose for the ball, kind of like Dennis Rodman. She has a real skill for knowing where the ball’s going to come off. By the same token, she’s an athletic kid so she can get off the ground and she’s not afraid to get after the ball in a bunch of bodies. That’s where you see great rebounders — they’re not afraid to bang and push and their one thought is get the ball, and they’re not worried about anything else. She has that singlemindedness that all great rebounders have.

Talk about Charlotte Otero and the leadership role she’s taken on.

We ask Charlotte to play a lot of minutes and she continues to compete at a high level. She doesn’t take plays off in practice and certainly takes no plays off in the games. As long as she continues to do that and keep her energy level up, she’s going to play all the time. She does a great job running the team offensively and communicating with me on what we need to do defensively. She’s emerged, as the year’s gone along, as a great leader for us.

The tournament is what you’ve played the whole season for. Are you all excited for this?

Oh yeah, this is the best time of year. We were just saying in the office, it’s tourney time, let’s go, it’s time to get it going. We’re going to talk to the players this afternoon. Like you said, it’s what you play for. It all comes down to the conference tournament and our goal will always be to get to the NCAA Tournament. Now we have our shot.

I watched a bunch of games on TV yesterday, all the conference tournaments going on, and it got me even more hyped up. You know, you see upsets, you see low seeds winning, you see high seeds winning, it’s a great time of year. It’s the best time if you’re a basketball coach, player or fan. So yeah, I’m ready to go. I wish we could leave today and get down to Reno and get this thing going.

What’s the biggest difference between the WAC and the Big Sky?

It’s the quality of the league overall. You know, there’s no nights off. It’s just, big. The size of the teams are bigger, it’s a more physical, faster league. The parity, too, is incredible. From top to bottom in the WAC as opposed to the Big Sky is totally different. No disrespect to the Big Sky, it was a good league and I enjoyed being there, but like I said, at Idaho State and Montana State, we ended up being the two bullies in the league.

Here, you play your hardest game every night and it could be anybody winning on any team. It’s been a great experience, but by the same token, it’s tough.  It’s hard, man. You have to be prepared every night. The travel is definitely a lot harder than getting on a bus, which was basically almost anywhere in the Big Sky. Here, you have days of road trips it feels like, from here to Ruston, La. or Hawaii, then back, going out. The WAC is a really tough travel league. I think all those things combined, make it that much harder to win in this league.