MOSCOW, Idaho - A salty fourth quarter that saw Idaho come back from being down seven points in the third period gave the Vandals a school record tying 15 straight wins and the most conference wins in history at 17.
Idaho overtook Eastern Washington, 75-64, to finish the regular season 26-5 and 17-1 as the Big Sky Conference champions.
EWU ends the regular season 14-17 overall, 7-11 in the league.
The fourth quarter became the Hope Hassmann show for the Vandals as the junior guard scored 20 of her team-leading 25 points.
"She's special," Idaho coach Arthur Moreira said. He noted Hassmann played in the shadow of senior Olivia Nelson last year as a sophomore. "Now she's really coming through. The ball just finds her."
Ella Uriarte found her with a court-length pass to open the fourth quarter and Hassmann finished in the lane to give the Vandals a 50-48 lead they protected the rest of the way.
Hassmann said in time outs in the second half the Vandals kept reinforcing to themselves their ability to win games like this.
"It was our mindset. We just kept on saying 'it's winning time.'
Another hero for the Vandals was senior post Debora dos Santos, who tore down 15 rebounds for Idaho, including seven on the offensive boards. None was bigger than the contested offensive rebound she fought for in the final minute and passed to Hassmann, who was fouled and sank a pair of free throws to put Idaho ahead 71-62.
"Deb finds a way to get a rebound," Moreira said. "She had a huge offensive rebound for us today that kind of sealed the game."
She also scored 10 points for Idaho, made four steals and blocked two shots.
Moreira also pointed out that among the Eagles' prior 10 league losses only one was by double digits.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy," he said of the game.
EWU's Ella Gallatin led all scorers with 26 points. But Idaho solved its Gallatin problem in the second half as she scored only four points after the break.
"We needed to have more urgency trying to deny her," said Ana Pinheiro.
She largely shared the defensive duty on Gallatin with Kyra Gardner. Pinheiro also found time to score 14 points for the Vandals and grab nine rebounds.
Idaho hardly lit it up from the floor, hitting only 28 of 74 shots for the game. But Moreira was pleased with his team's effort on defense. The Vandals forced the Eagles into 19 turnovers and outscored them on points off turnovers, 20-2.
"We are pretty together on defense," Pinheiro said.
Moreira said "I spent a lot more time teaching defense this year," and playing it effectively now "is a good spot to be in in the post season."
As regular season champion, Idaho earns the top seed in the Big Sky tournament which begins Sunday in Boise. The Vandals secured the league's regular season title with a hard-fought 55-41 win against Northern Colorado Saturday, and they were extended again before finally putting away the Eagles.
This was kind of an iron sharpens iron thing, according to Moreira.
He said "it makes us feel pretty good going into the conference tournament having those two games to test us."