Vandals sweep Eagles in home hoops doubleheader

Olivia Nelson’s first free throw banked off the back of the rim prompting her to lean back and stare at the ceiling.

The Idaho women’s basketball team held a comfortable lead with seven seconds left in the game but Nelson likely knew that she had fallen short of what would have been a career-high scoring output.

Seconds later, the senior sank her second free throw attempt to tie her career high with 29 points.

Nelson’s 29 led a Vandal squad that beat Eastern Washington 67-57 in a Big Sky Conference game Saturday at the ICCU Arena in Moscow. The Vandals led for one second short of 37 minutes and by as many as 17 midway through the third quarter.

In a Vandals-Eags hoops doubleheader, the Idaho men beat EWU 83-76 in a game that Idaho led for 37-and-a-half minutes but could not put away until the closing minutes.

UI women’s hoops coach Arthur Moreira said it was his team’s best home crowd of the season against an opponent tougher than its losing record may suggest.

“It’s a huge win for us,” Moreira said in his ESPN+ postgame interview. “Last week (EWU) played as well as any team in the conference.”

The Eagles (6-11, 2-3) arrived in Moscow as one of the hottest-shooting teams in the Big Sky with a 41% clip from the field.

Idaho (12-4, 4-1) held the Eagles to 31% shooting on Saturday.

“We just do a really good job keeping teams out of the paint and forcing contested shots,” Moreira said.

Nelson led the Vandals with a 9-for-15 shooting clip while adding six rebounds, two assists, a block and two 3-pointers.

The graduate senior from Kansas City made 9-of-12 shots from the free-throw line.

“She’s just a winner,” Moreira said of Nelson. “She started at Central Missouri (Division II) as a freshman on a team that made a Final Four run.”

Nelson made plays all night, including a half-court-length pass to a wide-open freshman Ana Pinheiro under the basket to give the Vandals a nine-point lead with 4:13 left in regulation.

The graduate student followed that up with a side step to fake out the Eagle defense and challenge a defender one-on-one along the right side of the paint for the layup to extend the Vandal lead to 10 with two minutes left.

Rosie Schweizer added 14 points and eight rebounds, four of which were offensive boards.

Anja Bukvic grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds, leading a group of five Vandals with at least six boards.

The Eags and Vandals stayed in lockstep with each other through the first quarter with Idaho holding the 17-15 advantage after 10 minutes.

Nelson tallied nine points and Schweizer posted half of her total offensive production with seven points in the second quarter to give the Vandals a 10-point halftime lead.

The Eagles cut the lead to six with 6:14 left in the fourth quarter

The Vandals and Eagles locked each other in a nearly two-minute scoring drought before Pinheiro hit a layup and Schweizer got a pair of free throws to make it a double-digit lead in the closing minutes.

The Vandal women improved to 12-4 overall and 4-1 in the Big Sky Conference, good for third place behind Montana State and Northern Arizona.

Idaho men complete the doubleheader sweep

With about 40 seconds left in regulation, Kris Gonzalez took the Vandals’ game of keep away to the next level when he drove, rose toward the rim and picked up the and-1.

The sophomore from Chula Vista, Calif., scored 20 points as the leader among five Vandals to hit double figures in Idaho’s 83-76 win over Eastern Washington.

The final attendance mark for the Idaho (8-10, 3-2) vs. EWU (6-12, 2-3) men’s game was 2,485.

Idaho men’s coach Alex Pribble said the crowd in Moscow is a sign of Vandal hoops taking the next step and evidence of his team’s on-court progress.

“We have a lot of guys who have that deep inner confidence,” Pribble said.

It started and ended with Gonzalez, who sank three 3-pointers to lead a balanced offense in which six Vandals scored at least nine points.

“Kris Gonzalez has been in these types of games,” Pribble said.

Julius Mims (14 points), Jack Payne (13), Tyler Mrus (12), Kolton Mitchell (11) and Tyler Linhardt (nine) comprised a Vandal offense that sank a combined eight 3s.

In a close rivalry encounter, the Vandals edged the Eagles in shooting (48.4 to 42.4%), rebounds (37-32) and assists (17-9).

Idaho sank a perfect 15-for-15 shots from the free throw line with Linhardt making each of his six charity stripe visits count for points.

Payne, a Colorado State transfer from Boise, filled up the stat sheet with 13 points, five rebounds, a steal and a team-leading five assists.

“Vandal fans are seeing what this team is gonna look like in the future,” Pribble said. “A guy like Jack Payne, he’s gonna be the backbone of this program for a long time.”

WOMEN

IDAHO (12-4, 4-1)

Nelson 9-15 9-12 29, Schweizer 5-12 3-6 14, Hassmann 1-5 4-4 6, Aadland 2-10 0-0 4, Bukvic 1-5 1-4 3, Brans 1-3 2-2 5, Pinheiro 2-7 0-0 4, Uriarte 1-2 0-0 2, Alves da Silva 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 22-64 19-28 67.

EASTERN WASHINGTON (6-11, 2-3)

Gallatin 5-16 4-514, Grossman 4-14 1-2 11, Howard 3-12 2-3 10, Eggers 4-13 1-1 10, Pettis 1-8 0-0 2, Harvey 3-5 0-0 6, Hays 2-3 0-0 4, Kirk 0-0 0-2 0, McElmurry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-71 8-13 57.

3-point goals — EWU 5-21 (Gallatin 0-5, Grossman 2-4, Howard 2-6, Eggers 1-4, Pettis 0-2), Idaho 4-13 (Nelson 2-3, Schweizer 1-2, Hassmann 0-1, Aadland 0-3, Brans 1-2, Pinheiro 0-2). Assists — EWU 4 (Gallatin 2), Idaho 13 (Bukvic 4). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — EWU 44 (Grossman 12), Idaho 52 (Bukvic 12). Total Fouls — EWU 22, Idaho 16. Technical Fouls — None.

MEN

E. WASHINGTON (6-12, 2-3)

Marquardt 3-9 5-7 11, Cook 7-14 4-5 18, Hartmann 3-5 0-0 7, McClain 4-6 4-5 13, Williams 6-13 6-6 21, Powell 2-8 1-3 6, Zanki 0-3 0-0 0, Stockton 0-1 0-0 0, Dziuba 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-59 20-26 76.

IDAHO (8-10, 3-2)

Mims 7-9 0-0 14, Mrus 4-14 2-2 12, Gonzalez 8-14 1-1 20, Mitchell 5-10 0-0 11, Payne 4-9 4-4 13, Linhardt 1-4 6-6 9, Anderson 1-2 2-2 4, Hardy 0-0 0-0 0, Brickner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-62 15-15 83.

Halftime — Idaho 38-26. 3-Point Goals — E. Washington 6-21 (Williams 3-6, McClain 1-1, Hartmann 1-3, Powell 1-3, Cook 0-2, Marquardt 0-3, Zanki 0-3), Idaho 8-29 (Gonzalez 3-7, Mrus 2-9, Payne 1-3, Linhardt 1-4, Mitchell 1-5, Anderson 0-1). Fouled Out — McClain. Rebounds — E. Washington 28 (Hartmann, Powell 7), Idaho 32 (Mims, Mrus 6). Assists — E. Washington 9 (McClain 5), Idaho 17 (Payne 5). Total Fouls — E. Washington 16, Idaho 17. A — 2,485 (4,200).