Sports & Rec
Page 5 January 14, 2011
Vandals bring down Wolfpack
Pierce Beigh Argonaut
The Idaho men’s basketball team played an outstanding game Wednesday in the Cowan Spectrum to overcome the Nevada Wolfpack with a score of 72-67. Idaho finished the game with a bang, capping another conference win. “We made some winning plays down the stretch, and that’s what you have to do to win a close one,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. Idaho has a hard time winning at home against the Wolfpack, but fought tooth and nail for the victory. Nevada leads the overall series with a record of 35-23. Coming into the game, Nevada had won the last four games and 13 of the previous 14 meetings. Idaho’s victory against the Wolfpack is an accomplishment that will provide extra momentum for the Vandals in the next few conference games. “I couldn’t be more proud of the guys,” Verlin said. “I thought my guys looked a little tired tonight from the road and I just need to get some pop back into their step.” Idaho now holds a record of 10-6 (4-1) in conference play. This is the best conference record in the five years Idaho has been in the WAC. “We’re stoked about where we’re at,” said Jeff Ledbetter, guard. “But we’re staying hungry and we’re moving on to the next game.” With this loss, Nevada’s record drops to 4-13 and 1-3 in conference play. The Vandals came out strong to start the game against the Wolfpack. Within just four minutes of the game, the Vandals had an 11-4 lead and were starting to show their shooting strength. Idaho seemed as if it would dominate the first half in boards and points, but the Wolfpack clawed their way back to take the lead with just 3:38 left in the game. Ledbetter produced three steals from three consecutive Nevada possessions, resulting in four points from free throws. His steals brought the lead back to the Vandals and gave them a two-point halftime lead with a score of 30-28. “That came out of nowhere,” Ledbetter said. “It was fun and it gave us a good spark, but it came out of nowhere.” The second half was the same story. Idaho came out on fire and made a 10-point lead with 15:40 left in the game. It once again seemed as if Idaho would close it out but within the last few minutes Nevada came back and took the lead. A set of free throws from Vandal point guard Deremy Geiger and a dunk from center Kyle Barone capped the victory for Idaho. Nevada forward Olek Czyz, a transfer from Duke Universi-
see RECORD, page 8
Jake Barber | Argonaut
University of Idaho guard/post Derina Taleni drives into the key during the women’s basketball game against the University of Hawaii Thursday evening in the Cowan Spectrum. The Vandals won 72-48.
Vandals win 500 Kevin Bingaman Argonaut
Nick Groff | Argonaut
Vandal guard Shawn Henderson dishes the ball off to center Kyle Barone late in the second half against the Nevada Wolfpack in the Cowan Spectrum. Barone finished the play with a two-handed slam, exclamating the 72-67 win over the Wolfpack. The Vandals are off to their best WAC start at 4-1 and 10-6 overall.
High percentage shooting and toughnosed defense propelled the University of Idaho women’s basketball team to its 500th program win Thursday night, as Idaho (96, 2-1) blew out Hawaii (6-10, 0-3) in a 72-48 decision. The first half was a battle royal that saw a back and forth battle with five lead changes. The Vandals were outrebounded 24-7 in the first half, which allowed Hawaii to stay close. Hawaii’s offense never looked crisp, but constantly crashing the glass made up for dismal shooting kept them in the game. Idaho coach Jon Newlee said rebounding held his team back. “Defensively, we were doing what we wanted, but we weren’t blocking out,”
Newlee said. “ It just wasn’t happening and they did a good job of getting off the glass.” With five minutes to go in the first half, Idaho started putting it together on both sides of the ball, building their biggest lead of the half and going into the locker room up 30-21. Rachelle Kloke led the team with eight points in the first half, hitting four of her five attempts in the half. In the second half the Vandals picked up where they left off, coming out of the locker room on a 14-0 run, led by Bianca Cheever, who scored 12 points all from behind the arch. Senior Yinka Olorunnife said it felt good to be on the right side of a big run. “It felt good,” Olorunnife said. “Usually we’re on the other side of a run like that so it was nice to be on the other side.” Idaho took control of every aspect of the game and never looked back, out-
scoring Hawaii 42-27 in the second half. Newlee said he is happy with the way his team responded. “I like the way we executed in the second half,” Newlee said. “We looked more like ourselves offensively. They were playing off us so much that the threes were there the second half, and we just needed to take advantage of it.” With the win the Vandals improve to 2-1 in conference play and Hawaii falls to 0-3. The Vandals will not be back in action until next Thursday when they hit the road, traveling to San Jose State to take on the Spartans. Coach Newlee said his team can’t afford to look past the struggling Spartans, but will need to just show up and play. Idaho will be back in the Cowan Spectrum Saturday Jan. 22 to take on rival Boise State.
Missed during break
Catching up with the Vandal men Kelli Hadley and Pierce Beigh Argonaut
Vandal fans had a lot to be excited about during the winter break, as the men’s basketball team used those games to propel to its current record of 10-6(4-1). The men began break with a close victory against the Oregon Ducks led by forward Brandon Wiley, who had 14 points, and Landon Tatum with 11. The Vandal men showed some weakness in terms of turnovers, but managed to pull through with an end score of 69-65. The team’s success was briefly halted by the next game, WAC opener against New Mexico State. Despite 17 lead changes, the game ended with a score of 69-74. Turnovers and lost rebounds were factors to blame in Idaho’s performance, but center Kyle Barone led the team and had a career-high end tally of 22 points and nine rebounds.
see CATCHING, page 8
Catching up with women’s basketball Kevin Bingaman Argonaut
The Vandal women’s basketball team kept its winning streak going during winter break, going 2-2 in the break and posting an overall record of 8-6. The team began break with losses against Seattle University and Gonzaga University. The losing streak extended to three when Idaho ran into another tough opponent in St. Mary’s, but Idaho showed resilience against University of Portland and ended the losing skid in a 71-66 decision. Yinka Olorunnife led Idaho with a 15-point, 18-rebound performance, nabbing her sixth dou-
ble-double of the season. Coach Jon Newlee said the win was important going into conference play. “To get that momentum going into conference play is huge,” Newlee said. “Especially a tight, physical road win in a knock-down drag-out game, like the WAC is going to be. I thought this was good preparation for us.” The Vandals opened up WAC play a week later with a thrilling overtime victory against Nevada in front of a national audience on ESPNU. The win gave Idaho its 499th win in program history. Idaho continued conference play Monday night, when Fresno State denied the Vandals their 500th pro-
gram win in a 67-84 loss. Newlee said communication was an issue in the loss. “I thought our start was great, we got out and we were communicating, we were playing good defense, getting good shots, getting to the rim,” Newlee said.” We got tired and our transition defense went bad. We stopped communicating defensively and gave up some wide open looks.” It’s still the beginning stages of conference play, but right now Idaho 8-6(1-1) is sitting in fifth place. Fresno State 10-5(2-0) is in first place, followed closely by Louisiana Tech. Idaho will hit the road once again when they travel to San Jose to take on the Spartans Thursday.