BOISE \u2014 It\u2019s been a decade since Idaho last appeared in the NCAA women\u2019s tournament. But the Vandals are just one win away from returning after dispatching fifth-seeded Sacramento State 59-51 Tuesday afternoon in the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament at Idaho Central Arena.<\/p>\n
Idaho (28-5) matched a 41-year-old school record for wins in a season but will need a victory over Eastern Washington or Montana State in the championship game Wednesday to earn an automatic bid.<\/p>\n
Despite the record-tying win, Idaho coach Arthur Moriera insists its not as meaningful as a 29th win would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a cool milestone,\u201d Moreira said, \u201cbut our goal has always been to make it to the tournament. If we can win twenty games in a season and win the championship, I\u2019ll take that over a thirty-win season. If you can do both, that\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinging to a 47-46 lead early in the fourth quarter, Idaho held a scrappy Sacramento State team without a field goal over the first 8:30 while building a 10-point lead. The Vandals converted 10-of-12 free throws down the stretch to secure the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell our team when it comes to the fourth quarter, it\u2019s winning time,\u201d Moreira said, \u201cand we did a pretty good job with that today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debora Dos Santos dominated in the paint for Idaho, recording a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds while matching up with Sacramento State star Fatoumata Jaiteh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go up against a strong player like Jaiteh, I always try to go with my strengths and use whatever tool I can,\u201d Dos Santos said. \u201cIt was tough today, but I\u2019m happy about the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vandals guard Kyra Gardner finished with 13 points and hit all four of her free throws in the final period.<\/p>\n
After a back-and-forth first quarter, Idaho went to work in the paint. The Vandals cobbled together a 24-12 advantage with six minutes remaining in the first half behind buckets in the paint from Gardner and Dos Santos.<\/p>\n
Then Sacramento State (15-18) roared back to take a 25-24 lead with a 13-0 run over the next three minutes, keyed by three 3-pointers, including two from Fatoumata Jaiteh.<\/p>\n
But Idaho regained its composure, turning again to Dos Santos, who scored four of the half\u2019s final six points to give the Vandals a 30-25 lead.<\/p>\n
The Hornets scratched their way back into the game in the third quarter, retaking the lead at 37-36 at the 4:51 mark when Jaety Mandaquit drilled a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
The two teams traded leads three more times before Idaho took the lead for good at 42-41 with 2:21 left in the quarter when Hope Hassmann scored on a floater in the paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were missing layups,\u201d Sacramento State coach Aaron Kallhoff said of his team\u2019s fourth-quarter drought. \u201cWe had good opportunities in that fourth quarter, but we just missed our shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natalie Picton and Jaiteh led Sacramento State with 15 and 10 points, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOISE \u2014 It\u2019s been a decade since Idaho last appeared in the NCAA women\u2019s tournament. But the Vandals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-213691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}