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Vandals’ Mkrtychyan

to play for Armenia

Arkadiy Mkrtychyan will be spending the final month of his summer away from the Idaho Vandals but not away from the game, as he will compete with Team Armenia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European pre-qualifiers.

Mkrtychyan and Armenia will play six games in a little under three weeks, beginning with Slovakia at home on Wednesday. Armenia will then take on Sweden on Aug. 5 before hitting the road for three straight.

From there, Armenia will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina (Aug. 9) and a rematch with Slovakia (Aug. 12) before closing out the road stretch in Sweden on Aug. 16. Armenia wraps up pool play at home against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Aug. 19.

The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 qualifiers, which begin in late November. Mkrtychyan and Armenia are already fighting an uphill battle, as Group A is the only group with four teams.

Mkrtychyan has been a mainstay for Idaho since stepping foot on campus three years ago. He is one of just four Vandals in the last decade to average at least seven points per game over three straight seasons, and the only Vandal to do so in his first three years in Moscow. Last season, Mkrtychyan finished third on the team at 8.3 points and 4.3 boards per contest as the Vandals went 19-14 and advanced to the second round of the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.

LCSC adds familiar

faces with

McClure, Paull

LEWISTON — Two individuals familiar with the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and Lewis-Clark State College are joining the Warrior athletic department as Scott McClure has been named Associate Athletic Director and Becky Paull is the new Sports Information Director, LCSC athletic director Brooke Cushman announced.

McClure fills the vacancy created when Gary Picone announced in January he would be retiring on July 1. Cushman, who had served as associate athletic director, was named Picone’s replacement. Paull takes over for Nick Fortini, who left in June to return to San Diego Christian College as assistant athletic director.

McClure, who begins his new post on Aug. 9, has been serving as the River States Conference commissioner for the past two years. The River States is a 13-member conference in the NAIA with its headquarters in Florence, Ky.

McClure’s connection to Lewiston is that he was the NAIA Manager of Championship Sports and was responsible for overseeing all aspects of four national championships by the NAIA, including the NAIA World Series for 10 years during 2002-12. He attended the Series in Lewiston each year and became familiar with both the college and its administration.

Paull grew up in Lewiston and is a 1975 graduate of Lewiston High. She spent nearly 21 years at the University of Idaho, most of it as assistant athletic director for media relations, before retiring in June.

Paull graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism. She spent 17 years at the Idaho Statesman and was honored three times as the Idaho Sportswriter of the Year before returning to Moscow in 1996. She was the 2002 recipient of the COSIDA Bob Kenworthy Award.