Recap: Idaho's Strong Fourth Pushes Vandals Past @UNCBearsWBB

Thursday, January 25

Greeley, Colo

7 pm

University of Northern Colorado

13-6, 6-2BSC

Idaho

9-10, 5-3BSC

Idaho

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

1/25/2018 10:47:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Northern Colorado women's basketball fell to Idaho at home Thursday night 79-71

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – It was a back and forth hard fought battle between Northern Colorado (13-6, 5-3 Big Sky) and Idaho (9-10, 5-3 Big Sky) Thursday night in Bank of Colorado Arena. Both teams will wake up a little sore tomorrow after the Vandals outlasted the Bears 79-71 in the Big Sky Battle.

It was a game that featured multiple runs by both teams, leading to 10 ties and 10 lead changes throughout.

Bridget Hintz earned her first career start for the injured Courtney Smith, and she sparked a 7-0 run midway through the first quarter scoring five of the points. Idaho responded though, as would end up being the theme of the night ending up leading 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Mikayla Ferenz scored a third of her 33 game points in the first quarter, showing why she is one of the top scorers in the nation.

Like the first quarter, it was a back and forth contest, as each team traded 8-0 runs. A Taylor Pierce jumper just before the buzzer gave UI a 26-24 lead going into the break. While the first half was a close game, it was not always the cleanest as the two teams combined for 20 turnovers leading to easy baskets for each team.

Northern Colorado and Idaho came out of halftime and burned down the nets inside Bank of Colorado Arena. Combines they went 19-for-25 in the quarter leading to 49 total points and plenty of thrills for the fans in attendance.

With all of the scoring, came five ties and four lead changes. UNC led by as much as four in the period, but neither team able to build any breathing room. When the dust settled at the end of it, Idaho led 61-58.

Tiarna Clarke opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to even the game for the 10th time. Idaho held a slight advantage for the majority of the fourth following that, and UNC was unable to ever tie it up or take the lead again. The Vandals used a late 7-2 run to take control of the game and defeat the Bears.

What They Said

Head Coach Kamie Ethridge

On team's struggle with offense at times
"I think we get impatient on offense and try to get something going to early in the shot clock. Idaho will sag off a player to clog the paint to stop you from penetrating and we just over penetrated at times. We also left points at the free throw line when we had a chance to keep ourselves in the game."

About the play of Idaho's Mikayla Ferenz
"Ferenz is a heck of a player an scorer. We allowed her to gain confidence and that ended up hurting us, especially on their inbounds plays"

What the difference in the game ended up being
"We end up having one bad offensive quarter it feels like, and it happened to us again tonight. It came down to who finished the game out strongest tonight and they did it and we did not. It is just like the North Dakota game in that way, and we have to get better about that."

Krystal Leger-Walker

On Offensive Struggles During the Game
"We were just struggling to get into our sets and to make the right reads on offense tonight. It was on us and our execution leading to the struggles on offense tonight."

Savannah Scott

About What Plagued the Team
"It felt like half of our offensive sets we just did not get into the right flow and miscommunicated what play we were in. It just came down to us making a play when we needed to."

Game Changer
Mikayla Ferenz is one of the top scorers in the nation, and she showed why on Thursday night. Ferenz ended the game with 33 points on 11-of-21 shooting including connecting on six shots from beyond the arc. She not only filled up the bucket but added six rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block to her night's work.

Stat to Know
The main objective of basketball is to put the ball in the basket. That ended up being the stat to explain the outcome of the game with rebounds, assists, steals and turnovers essentially being equal. Idaho ended up outshooting Northern Colorado 53.7 percent to 42.2 percent.

Game Notes
- Bridget Hintz recorded her first career start Thursday night. She ended up playing in a career-best 24 minutes, scoring seven points, grabbing five rebounds, swiping three steals, blocking a shot and dropping in an assist.
- Savannah Scot led UNC with 15 points. Kianna Williams and Krystal Leger-Walker also scored in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
- Idaho's Geraldine McCorkell could not miss Thursday night, going 9-of-9 from the floor and 3-for-4 from the charity stripe. That effort led to 22 points for her.

What's Ahead
The Bears look for the weekend split with Easter Washington comes to town on Saturday for a high-noon tip-off. EWU is also coming off a loss Thursday night at North Dakota 81-79.

Tickets for the game and all UNC women's basketball games can be purchased at UNCBears.com/Tickets, by visiting the UNC Box Office open Monday-Friday from 10-5 or calling 970-351-4849.

To stay up to date on all things UNC women's basketball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @UNCBearsWBB.