Hill shines as Vandals win on senior day
From news services
MOSCOW - Don Verlin always says he wants senior week to be a celebration.
And that it was as the Idaho Vandals wrapped up the week with an 80-73 Big Sky Conference victory over Montana State on Saturday afternoon before a full house - an estimated 1,500 - at Memorial Gym.
The game carried a lot of meaning in many ways. Connor Hill, a native of Post Falls, played his last game on the Idaho campus and in it had five 3-point goals on the way to a 21-point night.
Mike Scott, one of the three seniors, hit one of his two 3s with 50 seconds remaining to give the Vandals the cushion they needed going into the game's final seconds.
And Bira Seck, the third senior (who has started every game of his two-year Vandal career), had four points and six rebounds.
There were conference implications, too. Idaho improved to 8-8 in the league and 13-14 overall and stayed in the battle for one of the eight berths in the Big Sky's post-season tournament. Montana State (7-21, 4-13) was eliminated from conference tourney consideration after Thursday's loss at Eastern Washington.
"The thing I talk about is it's a celebration week," Verlin said. "I talk to them a lot about what Vandals do. They compete and they play hard."
That they did. After a hard-fought, double-overtime victory over Montana to start the weekend, Idaho found itself in a similarly rugged battle Saturday afternoon. Neither team led by more than six points until the Vandals started to inch ahead late in the second half.
A Scott jumper with 6:38 to play, followed 32 seconds later by his two free throws, pushed Idaho to a 67-57 lead with 6:06 to play. Idaho led by 10 once more, 71-61, on a layup by Arkadiy Mkrtychyan with 4:59 to go before the Bobcats rallied to cut the lead to three, 73-70, on two Marcus Colbert free throws with 1:19 to play.
That set the stage for Scott's 3, which was followed by two free throws by Perrion Callandret at the 41-second mark and two more by Scott to put the game out of reach of the Bobcats with :24 to go.
"I'm just glad we can go out with two wins here at home," Hill said. "It's just been a great four years. I can't express how great it's been.
"It was a grind-out game. We knew it was going to be like that. They were fighting hard."
In addition to Hill's 21 points, Scott finished with 14, Mkrtychyan had 11 and Sekou Wiggs had 10. Wiggs and Seck were the rebound leaders with six each.
With his five 3s, Hill moved into a tie for third with Gordon Scott on the single-season all-time list. He has 96 with two regular-season games to play. He had 98 last season, which was just one shy of Jeff Ledbetter's single-season record of 99 set in 2010-11.
Colbert, who played with Hill at Post Falls High, finished with a game-high 26 points, including 5 of 9 3-pointers. He also had eight rebounds and three assists.
Idaho travels to Weber State on Thursday and Idaho State on Saturday to conclude the regular season.