Women’s basketball grabs first road win in Idaho

The CSU women’s basketball team defeated the Idaho Vandals 65-55 Tuesday night for its first win away from the friendly confines of Moby Arena of the 2009-2010 season.

Junior guard Bonnie Barbee led the Rams with a career-high 20 points and drained several key three-pointers in the waning moments to put the Vandals away for good.

The Rams built a 15-point halftime lead with 55 percent shooting, but Idaho clawed their way back into the contest to trail by just five with 2:08 left in the game.

“We just came out in the second half and couldn’t hit anything,” head coach Kristen Holt said. “They went on a run and got back in the game. We never lost the lead … It was a struggle but we found enough at the end to get a victory.”

Meghan Heimstra posted her second double-double this season, tallying 13 points and 12 rebounds. The Rams leading scorer, sophomore Kim Mestdagh, was held to a season-low 11 points on four of nine shooting.

“We had better energy in this game than when we played Denver,” Holt said. “The biggest stat probably is that we out-rebounded them.”

This season, the “buzz word” for CSU appears to be energy, as both players and coaches have cited energy, or a lack thereof, as the primary reason for success and failure thus far.

“For us to be at 5-2 at this point, I couldn’t be happier,” Holt said.

Women’s basketball beat reporter Kyle Grabowksi can be reached at sports@collegian.com.