Vandals brace for Boise State visit
<p>Boise State's Robert Arnold (1) celebrates after dunking against Nevada last Saturday.</p>
MOSCOW - Boise State's men's basketball team visits Moscow to play Idaho for perhaps the last time tonight, and Vandal officials are hoping a record crowd shows up for the 7 p.m. tipoff at Cowan Spectrum.
The record attendance for a game at Cowan is 5,676, set in 2004.
Idaho (12-6, 5-1 Western Athletic Conference) is in second place in the WAC, one game behind Utah State (17-2, 6-0). Boise State (11-7, 4-2) is tied for third.
Boise State leaves the WAC for the Mountain West Conference following this season, meaning the Broncos wouldn't automatically be scheduled to play the Vandals after this year.
Idaho has won five straight WAC games, six overall, following a loss at New Mexico State to open conference play.
The last time Idaho started 5-1 in conference play was the 1993-94 season in the Big Sky. The team's last 6-1 start was one year earlier, in 1992-93. It's also been 12 years since Idaho last won five conference games in a row.
Idaho's scoring is balanced, with Kyle Barone averaging 11.0 points per game, Deremy Geiger 10.3, Jeff Ledbetter 10.2 and former North Idaho Cardinal Shawn Henderson at 9.7. Henderson averages a team-high 3.0 assists.
Boise State coach Leon Rice was an assistant at Gonzaga for the past 11 seasons before taking over at BSU this season.
Boise State leads the WAC in scoring at 75.4 points per game, and Robert Arnold (15.5 ppg) and La'Shard Anderson (14.8 ppg) rank in the top five in the conference. Daequon Montreal, a transfer from Southern Idaho, is fourth on the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game, and leads the team with 6.0 rebounds per game. The Broncos are 15th in the NCAA with 9.4 steals per game.
BSU is coming off a 69-67 home loss last Saturday to Nevada, a team Idaho beat 72-65 at home three days earlier.
Idaho's women's basketball team (9-7, 2-2) plays host to Boise State (11-7, 2-2) today at 4. The Vandals are also hoping to break attendance record for a women's game at Cowan Spectrum - 2,115, set in 2004.
Vandals senior Bianca Cheever, a transfer from NIC, averages 7.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. One ticket gets fans into both games today.