Vandals end skid
ARLINGTON, Texas - Behind a dominant rebounding performance and season-best offensive efficiency, Idaho led from start to finish in a 77-64 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball road win at UT Arlington on Saturday.
Idaho (7-10, 3-4 WAC) shot a season-best 59.5 percent from the floor, went 8 of 19 from 3-point range, knocked down 86.4 percent of its free throws and out-rebounded UTA (8-8, 3-4) 38-26 to end a four-game losing streak.
"I thought we had a great team effort tonight," Idaho coach Don Verlin said. "We had a number of guys come in and give us some quality, quality minutes tonight. Everybody that came off the bench was enthusiastic and energetic."
Vandal senior Kyle Barone notched his WAC-leading eighth double-double of the season with 14 points and a career-best 18 rebounds in the game, a total that is tied as the most by a Vandal in WAC play.
Idaho sophomore Connor Hill, the former Post Falls High standout, pitched in a game-high 19 points on 7-of-9 overall and 4-of-6 3-point shooting.
“I thought he rebounded with a purpose and I thought he rebounded with aggression,” Verlin said of Barone. “That was one of our keys going in. We knew we had to rebound the ball at a high level.”
UTA trimmed Idaho’s lead down to six points, 62-56, with 6:49 to play, and had built some momentum. A pair of Barone freebies extended Idaho’s lead to eight, and then the next time down the court, Hill canned an off-balance, fadeaway 3-pointer from NBA range as the shot clock expired.
Hill’s triple swung the momentum back to the Vandals’ favor and they didn’t trail by less than eight points for the remainder of the game.
UTA entered the game ranked 12th in the NCAA in field goal percentage defense, but Idaho knocked down 25 of its 42 shots overall for a season-high 59.5 percent and drained 13 of its 18 second-half attempts (72.2 percent).
“They (UTA) double the ball, but we did a nice job of moving the ball, finding the open guy and making the open shots when we needed to,” Verlin said. “We just made a bunch of shots tonight.”
Idaho held the Mavericks to a 24-of-64 (37.5 percent) shooting overall, including 6 of 25 from 3-point range.
UTA also entered the game as the WAC’s top rebounding team, but on Saturday, Idaho turned the tables with a plus-12 rebounding margin. Barone led the charge from the start and had six rebounds in the first five minutes alone.
“I wanted to come out and kind of set the tone,” Barone said. “I knew they were going to come at us hard on the boards, like coach talked about before the game. I came out hard from the beginning and the ball just kind of found me and I found the ball.”
His 17 defensive rebounds are the most ever by a Vandal in WAC play and his 18 total rebounds are the most since David Dubois grabbed the same total at Boise State on Mar. 4, 2006.
Forward Kevin Butler led the Mavericks with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
After playing five of its first seven WAC games on the road, Idaho now hosts four in a row on its home floor, starting with Texas State (5-14, 1-6) on Thursday and UTSA (4-13, 0-7) on Saturday.
IDAHO (7-10)
Barone 4-7 6-7 14, Harris Jr. 4-6 0-1 10, C. Hill 7-9 1-1 19, McChristian 1-3 0-0 3, Madison 5-9 4-5 15, Douglas 0-3 0-0 0, Habeeb 1-1 6-6 8, Borton 0-0 0-0 0, Kammerer 3-4 0-0 6, Faines 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 25-42 19-22 77.
TEXAS-ARLINGTON (8-8)
Butler 4-12 6-8 15, Edwards 1-2 0-0 2, Reves 4-9 0-2 8, Catlett 4-5 0-0 8, Gruszecki 2-12 3-4 9, Outler 2-9 0-0 5, Charles 0-2 0-0 0, White-Miller 4-9 0-2 10, Gainey 3-4 1-1 7. Totals 24-64 10-17 64.
Halftime_Idaho 34-30. 3-Point Goals_Idaho 8-19 (C. Hill 4-6, Harris Jr. 2-4, Madison 1-3, McChristian 1-3, Kammerer 0-1, Douglas 0-2), Texas-Arlington 6-25 (White-Miller 2-4, Gruszecki 2-10, Butler 1-4, Outler 1-5, Charles 0-2). Fouled Out_McChristian. Rebounds_Idaho 38 (Barone 18), Texas-Arlington 26 (Butler, Reves 6). Assists_Idaho 16 (McChristian 3), Texas-Arlington 12 (Catlett 4). Total Fouls_Idaho 19, Texas-Arlington 17. A_1,424.