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Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Vandal women look to build off historic season
- Story byLewiston Tribune, Idaho
- Vandal women look to build off historic season
Oct. 30—The Idaho Vandals women's basketball team is coming off a historically successful season, retaining a lot of last year's roster and looking to be even better than it was in 2025-26 when it won the Big Sky Tournament and advanced to March Madness.
Idaho broke the program record for the most wins in a single season with 29 last season. The historic Vandals team also broke the program record for most consecutive wins in a single season with 18. Both of those previous records were from 1984-85.
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Idaho won the regular-season Big Sky Conference title and the Big Sky Tournament championship while earning its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015-16.
Idaho coach Arthur Moreira said that throughout offseason practice, the Vandals "learned a lot" and created great opportunities to develop real in-game scenarios in practice.
The Vandals will open up their season by hanging a Big Sky Conference championship banner against NCAA Division II Saint Martin's at 11 a.m. Monday at ICCU Arena.
"I feel like at this time we're a little more prepared than we were last year, (at) the beginning of the season. So that's always good," Moreira said. "I'm excited for Nov. 2 kids' game, 11 a.m. Going to have a lot of screaming kids out there, and then the men play later that night. We get to celebrate both banners, so it should be a pretty fun day for Vandal fans."
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Replacing big production
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Idaho had multiple players that left due to graduation, including Lorena Barbosa, Debora dos Santos, Kyra Gardner, Anja Bukvic, Catelyn Deaver, Mary McMorris and Sarah Brans.
Gardner was second on the team in total points last season, while dos Santos and Barbosa were fourth and fifth, respectively. Dos Santos led the team in rebounds and Gardner was second. Gardner also led in steals and in blocks, while dos Santos was second in blocks.
In short, a lot of production left.
"I think it's a combination of the returners all (stepping) up their game, so they're playing better than they were last year," Moreira said about replacing the graduated players. "Like you're gonna see a better version of Hope (Hassmann), a better version of Ana (Pinheiro), a better version of Ella (Uriarte), Ana (Beatriz Passos Alves da Silva), (Kaitlin Kangur) made huge strides."
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Moreira said that senior transfer forward Keanna Salave'a, from Sacramento State, has done well this offseason as well and played great in the two exhibition games. He said that she has improved since her time at Sac State.
"I feel like our system really fits her," Moreira said of Salave'a. "She really bought into the culture. She's been working really hard. So the new players have been developing, and they've been stepping up, but the returners have also gotten better.
"I don't think you can replace Kyra (Gardner) or Deb (dos Santos) or Lorena (Barbosa) with one player. It's not like a one-for-one thing, but I think (with) the overall package we can be just as good, if not better, than we were last year."
Need-to-know players
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Hassmann, a senior guard, has been and will continue to be the standout player for the Vandals.
She was a first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection last year and was named the 2026 Big Sky Tournament MVP.
Hassmann led the team in points (496), assists (143) and minutes played (1,042).
Junior guard Pinherio started all 35 games for Idaho last year. She was named to the Big Sky All-Defensive team last year and had 42 steals and 25 blocks.
Junior guard Uriarte also started all 35 games for the Vandals last year. She averaged 6.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting 40.3% from the field and 33% from 3-point range.
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Beatriz Passos Alves da Silva, also junior guard, was a role player last year who is expected to take a step up. She averaged 6.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game last year.
Kangur averaged 11.9 minutes per game last year and averaged 1.8 points, 2.1 rebounds and dished out 25 assists last season.
Moreira said that Salave'a will be an important player this season and that another post player, junior transfer Aniyah Riddell from Central Arizona College, has been good in the offseason too.
"She came in early. She graduated from Central Arizona on one day, the next day, she was in Moscow, trying to get ready for the season and working on her body and becoming more athletic," Moreira said of Riddell.
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He said that sophomore guard Brynna Pukis, a transfer from Long Beach State, is "one of the best shooters (he's) ever coached."
Freshman guard Jacey Boesel from Deer Park High School stepped up "big time" in the exhibition games when players were banged up.
"I feel like besides the returners that you guys all know, those newcomers have really stepped up to the bar, and it's going to make our team even deeper this year," Moreira said.
Have an 'underdog mentality'
Moreira said that the defense and the physicality that the Vandals team showed late last year that helped win a championship returned quickly this year.
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He said that at the beginning of last year he was questioning if they would have to score 100 points to win each game and then when the team finally developed defensively, something changed. He thinks that has carried over to this season.
"I felt like that helped us be consistent and win more games and go on that 18-game win streak and win the championship," Moreira said. "I felt like the returners helped because they know our defensive concept really well, so when we played these two (exhibition) games that we did in the preseason, we were really locked in defensively."
Moreira said that the season will be all about controlling what they can control and up until January of last season, he didn't think the team did a good enough job of that.
"You can always rebound, you can always defend, you can always be physical. You cannot always make shots, right? So I felt like our team really learned from that last year," Moreira said.
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According to Moreira, winning the regular-season championship is more difficult than the tournament championship because they have to stay the most consistent team for 20 games in the Big Sky.
"You have to be the team that plays the hardest," Moreira said. "My message to them this offseason (is to) have the underdog mentality every game. Doesn't matter if you play a Big 12 team, a Pac-12 team, a Big Sky team, or a Division II team or an NAIA team, you need to outwork every single team that you play against to put (yourself) in the best position to win."
Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X @TrevorJunt.
