On Thursday night the University of Idaho hosted a “White Out” for the Vandals’ match-up against Utah State. But the only thing to get whited out was Idaho’s opportunity to capitalize on a four-game homestand, falling to Utah State 77-67 at the Cowan Spectrum.
No Preston Medlin? No Kyisean Reed? No problem for Stew Morrill’s Utah State Aggies, who completed an agonizing season sweep of Idaho with the win.
The loss drops Idaho to 4-6 in conference play and means the Vandals haven’t posted consecutive victories since its first two conference games when they defeated Seattle and San Jose State in back-to-back games on the road. Idaho has yet to win consecutive home games in conference play — The Vandals are 1-4 at the Spectrum against WAC foes.
The confusing thing about this loss? For the first time in Idaho’s 10 conference games it won the turnover battle, only turning the ball over 9 times. The Vandals scored more off turnovers (15) than the Aggies (10). Idaho didn’t lose the shot attempt battle, getting the same amount of shots (47). And, again, Idaho was deadly efficient from the field shooting 53-percent.
But Stew Morrill hasn’t become a college basketball legend at Utah State for no reason. The Aggie head man relied on center Jarred Shaw to dictate everything that was happening in the paint, which included negating Idaho’s biggest weapon — Kyle Barone. Barone finished the game with 11 points, and only had seven of Idaho’s 47 shots. Idaho scored more points from beyond the arc (30) than inside the paint (26).
Utah State missed 19 shots and Idaho only grabbed 11 of those as defensive rebounds. Grabbing eight offensive rebounds Utah State was able to convert 14 second chance points — Shaw grabbed four of those and ended up with 27 points on 12 of 15 shooting, 3 of 3 from the charity stripe. The Aggies were merciless in the paint, both imposing their will offensively and forcing the Vandals to get their offensive looks outside the paint.
All in all, Idaho coach Don Verlin said it best.
“I got my butt out-coached,” he said. “They were way ahead of us all night long, no question about it. We couldn’t guard them — the bottom line is everything we tried, we couldn’t get them stopped.”
Here is our game story:
By Theo Lawson
Argonaut
Without two of its top three scorers, Utah State was critically wounded. The Aggies were far from dead though, and were able to break out of a four-game skid with a 77-67 win against Idaho Thursday evening in the Cowan Spectrum.
The Vandals made a sloppy mess out of the game’s first seven minutes and led by one of the nation’s premier coaching minds, the Aggies started well and held an 18-3 lead, outmuscling Kyle Barone down low and swarming Connor Hill at the 3-point line.
The Vandals, led by the Stew Morrill-influenced mind of former Aggie assistant Don Verlin, did manage to reel off an 8-0 run which saw Hill convert from about three feet beyond the arc before a Barone put back dunk ensued and Hill would connect on his 100th career 3-pointer to bring the Vandals within seven.
What entailed was anything but ideal for Verlin, against a longtime companion in Morrill.
Click here for the rest of the game story for Idaho’s 77-67 loss to Utah State Thursday night