There are feel-bad losses, and then there are those like Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine coughed up an 18-point second-half lead and self-destructed late, falling to last-place Idaho 69-61 in stunning fashion before a crowd of about 500.

All signs pointed to a UH blowout win through about 26 minutes as the Wahine dominated the glass and enjoyed a 46-28 lead.

Instead, UH (8-13, 3-3 Western Athletic Conference) ended up shooting 18.9 percent in the second half to 50 percent for suddenly confident UI (6-16, 1-5), which snapped an eight-game losing streak.

"If you play a 26-minute game, I would have said I was pleased," UH coach Dana Takahara-Dias said. "But we played 40 minutes. It was just unimaginable and unacceptable that we let a 17-point (18-point) lead go, at home, in our WAC conference."

After getting outscored 43-24 after halftime and falling into a tie for fourth place, UH has little time to regroup. It hosts second-place Utah State (14-6, 5-1) on Saturday, following the annual alumnae game.

The Wahine even had a fairytale storyline on their side. UH reserve guard Kanisha Bello came out on fire in the first half, sinking five of seven shots for 11 quick points against her former team and forcing her old coach, Jon Newlee, to call timeout.

But Bello — a Vandal during her freshman year of 2009-10 — played only 5 minutes in the second half and was held scoreless in the period.

"It’s been a year and a half, I wanted to play this game so bad," Bello said. "I wanted to just help out our team in any way that I could. I just wish the outcome was a little different.

"They’re a very good team. They were able to come back and fight and they played a great game. We just weren’t able to respond."

Newlee got vindication after his top assistant, Gavin Petersen, came back home to coach on Takahara-Dias’ staff in the offseason, bringing the Vandals’ motion offense with him.

Facing the sizable second-half gap, Idaho guard Keri Arendse knifed through the UH defense for three layups in under 3 minutes — a harbinger that something was amiss defensively — and UI followed with seven 3-pointers to erase the deficit completely.

Arendse tied it up at 51 on a 3, then had the go-ahead trey with 5:25 to play. She scored 17 of her 19 points after the break to go with 10 rebounds.

The Wahine were also burned by easy Vandal putbacks in the final minutes.

"We’re not just talking about breakdowns on the perimeter. We’re talking about the inability to finish a defensive play … especially down at the end when we gave up three critical box outs that resulted in scores," Takahara-Dias said.

Sophomore forward Kamilah Jackson had 15 points and a season-high 20 rebounds for UH.

Dew named CoSIDA All-District

UH senior center Rebecca Dew was named to the Academic Women’s Basketball All-District 8 team by the College Sports Information Directors of America on Thursday.

The English major is the first Rainbow Wahine player to earn first-team honors after earning second-team distinction last season. Previous Wahine to receive it were Raylene Howard (second team), BJ Itoman (third) and Brittany Grice (third).