Vandals' defense rests in loss to BSU
MOSCOW - Defense was Idaho's calling card during its six-game winning streak, but on Saturday night, the Vandal men's basketball team couldn't make the plays it needed to late and fell 70-67 to Boise State at the Cowan Spectrum.
Idaho (12-7, 5-2 Western Athletic Conference) slipped into a second-place tie with the Broncos (12-7, 5-2 WAC) after the loss, and saw its program-best five-game WAC winning streak come to an end in front of a crowd of 5,017 - the third-largest in Cowan Spectrum history.
"Those are tough ones to swallow, no matter who you play, Idaho coach Don Verlin said. "You lose to your in-state rival at home, it hurts."
The Vandals raced out to a 12-point first-half lead and held the Broncos to 30 percent shooting overall and 15.4 percent from 3-point range, but Idaho couldn't make the same stops in the second half, when BSU hit 51.7 percent of its attempts and 44.4 percent of its 3-pointers.
"We didn't lose this game offensively," Verlin said. "You look at the stat sheet and we shot 51 percent - we had 18 assists, 13 turnovers. We didn't get our job done defensively, and that's what we've been hanging our hat on."
La'Shard Anderson scored a game-high 21 points for Boise State.
Idaho hit slightly more than half its shots from the field, but had an uncharacteristically poor 3-point shooting day. The Vandals' 3-for-13 (.231) performance was the worst since Dec. 11 at Seattle University.
The Vandals were led by sophomore Kyle Barone's 15 points and eight rebounds, and senior guards Shawn Henderson and Jeff Ledbetter contributed 11 points each. Senior forward Brandon Wiley also grabbed eight rebounds, and junior guard Landon Tatum had a career-high seven assists, with no turnovers.
Idaho freshman Stephen Madison snatched a BSU inbounds pass at halfcourt with 11:25 left in the first half and took it the rest of the way for a slam. It was the second basket in a 13-0 Idaho run that turned a 13-12 deficit into a 25-13 lead at the 6:45 mark.
During its big scoring run, the Vandal defense held Boise State without a field goal for a span of seven minutes, 50 seconds. BSU missed nine consecutive shots, turned the ball over twice, and Bronco player Daequon Montreal was whistled for a technical foul during that span.
BSU ended the half by making four of its final seven shots, while Idaho wasn't able to keep hold of its momentum. After a Luiz Toledo dunk at the 6:45 mark, the Vandals made just three of their final shots in the period and took a 33-26 lead into the half.
Saturday's crowd was the largest since 5,676 watched Idaho play Utah State on March 5, 2004.
"I really appreciate the Vandal fans coming out tonight and I'm really disappointed we couldn't reward them with a victory tonight," Verlin said.
Idaho travels to Louisiana Tech on Thursday and to New Mexico State on Saturday.