If Kyle Barone hasn’t already secured the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year award, he’s inching closer and closer with every double double.
Barone was 10 of 10 from the field, better than any other player in the history of Idaho basketball, and the Vandals snuck out of the Cowan Spectrum with their first home conference victory of the season, a 74-70 win against Texas-San Antonio Saturday.
The senior center was good for 25 points, while improving upon his POY candidacy with 16 more rebounds. Barone collected his 10th double double of the campaign, 11th best in the NCAA, and surpassed former Vandal Phil Hopson to slide into the No. 7 spot on Idaho’s all-time scoring list. If that wasn’t enough, he also surpassed Hopson to become the fourth best rebounder in program history.
“I don’t think I’ve ever not missed a shot in a game in my life… I had no idea until I looked at it,” Barone said. “My teammates kind of got me little easy shots there.”
UTSA, which won its first WAC game Thursday at Seattle U., raced out to its biggest lead of the game with 7:34 to go in the second half.
Barone picked up Mike McChristian’s leftovers on a missed 3-point attempt and turned it into an Idaho basket before picking up a defensive board on the other end and letting Robert Harris Jr. do the offensive work, and Harris would notch his second trey of the game.
The Roadrunners regained the lead via a Jordan Sims three, but McChristian, who had gone just one of four from the field prior, knocked down a decisive long-range attempt to help Idaho to a four-point lead.
“I had missed my previous three 3-point attempts up to that point, but I just wanted to make sure I stepped up and still was confident while shooting it, and that late in the shot clock you don’t really have that much of an option,” McChristian said.
A team that has been accustomed to blowing late leads this season, ensured the same wouldn’t happen Saturday evening, even when leading scorer Michael Hale III hit a three of his own to bring the visitors within two points with seven seconds remaining.
Idaho had squandered leads in four of its five conference losses, including its biggest, a 17-point lead during Thursday’s loss to Texas State.
“I thought we did a good job defensively there in the second half, even though they make seven threes, I thought we did a pretty good job defending it and we rebounded some big shots,” coach Don Verlin said.
It was a night that saw Barone and junior forward Stephen Madison combine for 22 first-half points. However, the duo only attempted two shots during the initial 10 minutes of the second half, a timespan that saw Idaho score just 11 points.
“I think their zone kind of slowed us down a little bit and then coach was just talking about move, run, pass the ball because they can’t guard us when we pass the ball like that,” Barone said.
The teams accounted for 48 total 3-point attempts, and cashed in 22 of those attempts.
Idaho sophomore Connor Hill was just 2 of 10 from 3-point range in Thursday’s loss, but the Post Falls native went 4 of 9 Saturday and concluded with 15 points.
After Hale III posted a career-high 35 points Thursday against Seattle U., and tallied 31 more against Texas State a week ago, the senior guard was held to 21 points against the Vandals. Hale III also dished out seven assists.
The Vandals continue their four-game home stand Thursday against a struggling Utah State squad. The Aggies, who are playing without leading scorers Preston Medlin and Kyisean Reed, have lost four consecutive games after starting the season 14-1.
Thursday is “Whiteout the Spectrum” night and the first 1,000 fans will receive complimentary t-shirts.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]