Download PDF - University of Idaho Library
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After a mid-season slump drove <strong>Idaho</strong><br />
near the bollom <strong>of</strong> the MWAC standings<br />
the women rallied with five straight<br />
wins and found the season's end to be<br />
A time to shine<br />
There is no place like<br />
borne. And the <strong>Idaho</strong><br />
women's basketball team<br />
made the most <strong>of</strong> this theory as<br />
they rolled 10 a near-perfect<br />
11-1 record in the Dome and,<br />
despite going 6·8 in road contests,<br />
managed to grab third<br />
place in the newly-fonned<br />
Mountain West Athletic Conference.<br />
And, in a year marked<br />
by aD impressive earlyseason<br />
start and a mid-season<br />
trip 10 Hawaii, this finish was<br />
enough 10 launch the Vandals<br />
into the conference play<strong>of</strong>fs<br />
held in Missoula, Montana.<br />
From the very ooginning <strong>of</strong><br />
the season it looked like the<br />
lady hoopslers had successfully<br />
made the transition from<br />
Division II 10 Division I competition.<br />
They began the<br />
season by hosting the Mark IV<br />
Thanksgiving Classic which<br />
attracted Washington State,<br />
Colorado State, and Simon<br />
Fraser.<br />
The women opened the<br />
tournament with an 88·61 victory<br />
over Simon Fraser. a leam<br />
out <strong>of</strong> Canada. The next night<br />
they claimed the Classic<br />
championship with an impressive<br />
93-71 victory over<br />
Colorado State.<br />
After their secondconsecutive<br />
Classic title. the<br />
Vandals stayed home to easily<br />
dispose <strong>of</strong> Lewis·Clark State<br />
119-46 and Gonzaga 70-60.<br />
The two wins raised the Van·<br />
dals non·conference mark to<br />
4-0 and optimism for another<br />
top-notch season began to<br />
rise.<br />
The Vandals next opponent<br />
was Whitworth College. out <strong>of</strong><br />
Spokane. The Vandals bUtzed<br />
the Pirates 67-31 to run their<br />
record to 5-0 as they prepared<br />
for their big trip to the<br />
Hawaiian Wands.<br />
The Vandals' first test was<br />
Nippon <strong>of</strong> Japan. They moved<br />
into the championship bracket<br />
<strong>of</strong> the single elimination<br />
classic with a hard-fought<br />
80-71 victory. Unfortunately<br />
for <strong>Idaho</strong>, it was the last win<br />
that they would get in Hawaii.<br />
as they lost a second game in<br />
three days to the <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
Hawaii, and followed that by<br />
dropping their final game to<br />
Wayland Baptist 79-70 in the<br />
contest for third place.<br />
Back on the road, the Vandals<br />
again ran into problems<br />
as they dropped two consecutive<br />
contests to open conference<br />
play. Eastern<br />
Washington dumped <strong>Idaho</strong><br />
77-67 and Portland State<br />
followed up two nights later<br />
with a 13-61 victory in<br />
Portland. The losses dropped<br />
the Vandals to the MWAC<br />
cellar with an 0-2 mark as their<br />
overall record stood at 7-5.<br />
The following weekend, the<br />
Vandals returned home again<br />
to thrash a tougb Weber State<br />
team SO-64 and nip <strong>Idaho</strong> State<br />
68-60 to even <strong>Idaho</strong>'s allimportant<br />
conference record<br />
at 2-2.<br />
With an overall record <strong>of</strong><br />
9·5. the leam traveled to one<br />
<strong>of</strong> their most important road<br />
trips <strong>of</strong> the season as they went<br />
continued C><br />
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