LOGAN — The University of Idaho spoiled Utah State's "Senior Night" on Saturday as the Vandals knocked off the Aggies, 67-55, in the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball regular-season finale for both teams.
The loss means that USU will be the seventh-seed for next week's WAC Tournament at Las Cruces, N.M.
The tournament, hosted by New Mexico State at the Pan American Center, starts Tuesday with the Aggies taking the court Wednesday against second-seed Boise State at 8:30 p.m.
The Broncos, who tied Fresno State for a share of the regular-season conference championship, relinquished the No. 1 seed by way of Fresno State's 82-68 win over Nevada Saturday night.
USU falls to 9-19 overall and ends WAC regular-season action with a 5-11 ledger while Idaho is 4-24 overall and 3-13 in conference action with two of the three league wins against the Aggies, as the Vandals now lead the all-time series, 10-3.
Utah State's three seniors, Taylor Richards, Jamelah Brown and Jenny Gross were honored in a pre-game ceremony.
Gross led the Aggies with 18 points, hitting all eight of her free throws, and also pulled down six rebounds. It was Gross' ninth game in a row and 13th in the last 15 outings of posting double-figure points.
Junior guard Danyelle Snelgro tossed in 13 points and was matched by junior forward Shawnta Pope, who tallied career-highs with the 13 points as well as six rebounds. Pope more than tripled her previous career-high of four points. Richards, USU's shortest player on the roster at 5-4, snared a team-leading seven rebounds, as USU was out-rebounded by UI, 43-41. She also tied a game-high by swiping four steals.
The Vandals' bench outscored the Aggie bench, 37-16. Sara Dennehy scored 20 of those points, coming off the bench to lead Idaho, while Therese Riedel tallied 12 more in reserve play, while starter Carli Bakondy added 10. USU's defense held Idaho's leading scorer Katie Madison to half of her season average of 14 points, yielding only seven Saturday, but Madison snagged a game-high 10 rebounds, over three more than her average.
Utah State shot a paltry 26.9 percent (18-of-67) from the field, the Aggies' second-lowest shooting outing of the season behind 26.2 percent (16-of-61) at Hawai'i on Feb. 7. However the 7.7 percent (1-of-13) three-point shooting percentage was a new season-low.
USU was 18-of-24 (75.0 percent) at the free throw line, making more than Idaho attempted as the Vandals were 13-of-17 (76.5 percent).
UI hit 25-of-55 (45.5 percent) of its field goal shots, including 4-of-12 (33.3 percent) behind the three-point arc.
After a Richards baseline jumper from Richards to open the scoring, USU didn't make another field goal for nearly six minutes; meanwhile, Idaho opened up a 15-10 lead and the Aggies didn't get within six points from there on out. The Vandals led by as much as 14 points at 8:08 after a three-pointer by Alana Curtis put Idaho ahead, 24-10. UI led 31-22 at half as Dennehy drained a three-pointer from the corner with less than two seconds on the clock.
A 16-8 Vandal streak gave Idaho its largest lead of the game at 47-30 at the 11:47 mark on a Riedel layup. Utah State cut the gap to 47-38 with eight unanswered points, started with a Pope free throw and ended with a pair of Snelgro free throws with 9:05 remaining. Back-to-back buckets by Dennehy and Madison regained control for Idaho and the Vandals coasted to the win.
Saturday was the first time that Utah State has ended regular-season action at home since the program's first year of reinstatement, 2003-04, which was also against Idaho. Overall, it was just the seventh time in the program's 20 years that USU has ended the regular-season at home. However, this was the 12th straight regular-season finale loss for USU dating back to 1979...
Richards' four steals gives her 169 for her career and leaves her six swipes short of the USU career record of 175 by Margaret Johns' (1980-83), for her third Aggie career record as she already holds the assists (366 after Saturday) and three-pointers (91) records. Saturday was Richards' 112th career game in her four years as an Aggie, taking over sole possession of No. 2 on the USU games played list. Gross moved up to tie for seventh on the same list, playing in her 103rd career contest Saturday. Brown, only a two-year Aggie after transferring from junior college, played in her 56th game in a USU uniform Saturday.
Utah State was swept by Boise State in the season series, just losing to the Broncos, 65-57, Thursday night at home. USU also lost to BSU, 85-77, at Boise on Jan. 17.
The Aggies will be searching for their first WAC Tournament win, as sixth-seeded USU lost to third-seeded Nevada last year and ninth-seeded Utah State lost to No. 8 seed Idaho in 2006, USU's first year in the league.