What haunted the Vandals early in the season still haunts them now. For the second consecutive game Idaho couldn’t close out its conference opponent despite holding a lead late in the second half, falling 65-59 to Denver in its home conference opener.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Forward Stephen Madison drills past the defender during Thursday’s game against Denver at the Cowan Spectrum.
“They made the plays when they had to,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “They’re hard to play, I knew it was going to be a game like that. I was hoping we could find a way to grind it out.”
Denver took control of the second half early with a 9-0 run to give the Pioneers a 33-28 lead before Idaho picked up the defensive intensity with Stephen Madison taking over for the Vandals offensively. Madison ended the night with 19 points on 7-11 shooting and 5-7 from the free throw line.
In the end, though, it was the all-too-familiar 3-point shot woes which ultimately did Idaho in. Despite holding Denver to 27 percent shooting
from 3-point land, Chase Hallam hit the two biggest ones of the game with under four minutes remaining to give Denver a late lead. Hallam added a lay-up to respond to a 4-0 Idaho run, giving Denver a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“When we got the shots we were in pretty good shape, but we didn’t come up with the big rebounds when we needed them,” Verlin said. “When it came time when it was a one-possession game we came up with a big stop, forced them into a bad shot but failed to come up with that rebound.”
Denver’s Chris Udofia’s length and athleticism went a long way toward the Pioneers making Kyle Barone not much of a factor offensively for the Vandals. Barone ended the game with just 5 points on 2-7 shooting. It didn’t help that Idaho’s most athletic big man, Marcus Bell, didn’t participate in the game.
Idaho is the latest team to fall victim to Denver’s Princeton style system which Thursday night limited the amount of possessions Idaho had, only getting 35 shots off compared to Denver’s 44 shots from the field.
After starting 2-0 in WAC play with two road wins, the Vandals will now try to just stay above .500 in conference play when New Mexico State comes to the Cowan Spectrum on Saturday. The defending conference champions have gotten off to a slow start themselves in conference play, also starting 2-2.
“This league has always been a good league, as we know, like I told them. This is WAC basketball,” Verlin said. “People don’t come in and lay down at home. They’re going to come in and they’re going to make you fight, they’re going to make you work, they’re going to expose your weaknesses.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]