Vandals falter down the stretch
MOSCOW - In a game where every possession was crucial, Idaho made too many mistakes in a 55-49 loss to Denver in the Vandals' Western Athletic Conference men's basketball home opener Thursday night before 1,127 at the Cowan Spectrum.
Idaho (6-8, 2-2 WAC) committed 12 second-half turnovers and 18 total in the game, which Denver (8-7, 4-1) turned into 19 points.
"I knew the game was going to be like it was, a grind-out game," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "I knew it was going to be like that and I thought we did a lot of good things. We did a good job defensively, but we just didn't take care of our ball well enough to win this game."
In the first 36 minutes of the game, Idaho had held the WAC's most prolific 3-point shooting team to just three made triples, but Chase Hallam, who led Denver with 14 points, drained 3s on back-to-back possessions with three minutes to play. Those two shots snatched away an Idaho 44-41 lead and put the Vandals in a 47-44 hole with 2:36 to play.
Vandal senior Mike McChristian gave Idaho a 48-47 lead with a layup at 1:35, but Idaho committed two more turnovers and didn’t attempt a shot by the end of regulation, while DU re-took the lead on a layup at 1:14, then made all six of its free throw attempts to finish the game.
“I thought we defended it pretty well, but we let Hallam get loose there a couple times late and he makes two big 3-point shots,” Verlin said.
Vandal junior Stephen Madison led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, along with four assists. Sophomore guard Connor Hill, from Post Falls High, added 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting, all from long range, and added his NCAA-leading third four-point play of the season.
Leading scorer Kyle Barone tied his season low with five points on 2-of-7 shooting, and also had six turnovers. Verlin said DU did a good job of attacking him with the double teams and frustrating him all night long.
Idaho plays host to New Mexico State (9-8, 3-2) on Saturday.
DENVER (8-7)
Love 1-1 0-0 3, O’Neale 1-7 5-6 8, Olson 3-7 2-2 9, Hallam 6-8 0-0 14, Udofia 6-16 0-0 12, Griffin 2-3 5-5 9, Engesser 0-2 0-0 0, Byrd 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-44 12-13 55.
IDAHO (6-8)
Harris Jr. 0-1 0-0 0, C. Hill 3-6 3-3 12, McChristian 3-6 3-4 9, Barone 2-7 1-1 5, Madison 7-11 5-7 19, Douglas 0-0 0-0 0, Habeeb 1-3 0-0 2, Borton 0-0 0-0 0, Kammerer 0-0 0-0 0, Faines 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 17-35 12-15 49.
Halftime_Idaho 28-24. 3-Point Goals_Denver 5-18 (Hallam 2-4, Love 1-1, Olson 1-4, O’Neale 1-5, Engesser 0-2, Udofia 0-2), Idaho 3-9 (C. Hill 3-6, Madison 0-1, McChristian 0-2). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Denver 17 (O’Neale 5), Idaho 25 (Barone, McChristian 6). Assists_Denver 15 (O’Neale 6), Idaho 8 (Madison 4). Total Fouls_Denver 15, Idaho 13. A_1,127.