By Korbin McDonald
The young Vandal men’s basketball team showed their youth on Wednesday, when they traveled down to Norman, Okla., to take on the Oklahoma Sooners.
After a hot start, where they jumped out to an early six point lead, the Vandals quickly saw that lead diminish. The Sooners went to a full court press defense, which led to a 20-5 run and leading them to a victory, winning the game 85-65.
“We got off to a good start no question about it. You got to credit Oklahoma, they made some adjustments, they really picked up the pressure on us and we didn’t handle that very well,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said.
The full court press defense that the Sooners brought led to 14 Vandal turnovers and held them to only nine assists. Verlin pointed out, that it could take some time for this team to build up some chemistry.
“Nine new guys playing, we showed some inexperience tonight, we resorted back to some bad habits instead of playing team basketball,” Verlin said. “I hope our guys can learn from this game, Oklahoma is a good basketball team, we got to make sure we learn from it and when the heat turns up again, we can respond to it.”
The Vandals failed to get into any kind of rhythm shooting the basketball Wednesday night. They went 36.7 percent from the field, and 27.3 percent from behind the 3-point line. Stephen Madison, who had 21 points last game against Western Illinois, only had seven points this game going 3-11 from the floor and 0-4 from behind the 3-point line.
Verlin once again only played two true freshmen this game, in Perrion Callandret and Sekou Wiggs. Both improved from their Vandal debuts, where they combined for just four points. Callandret poured in 10 points, adding two rebounds, two assists, and one steal. Wiggs had 11 points with five rebounds and two steals.
“They’re good, young, athletic freshmen and both could be very good here. They have got to learn how to execute and make plays for everyone else though,” Verlin said.
Glen Dean continued to be effective and led the Vandals in scoring with 14 points, going 5-11 from the field and 2-5 from the behind the arc.
“I thought Glen Dean played a very good game, for having pressure on him all night,” Verlin said.
The men’s basketball team plays again at 7 p.m. on Saturday, when they return to Memorial Gym, to take on Northwest Nazarene.
“It’ll be good to get back to Moscow, this team is going to be fine, no question about it. I saw some things that I really liked tonight, I think in time you’ll see this team grow and turn into a really nice basketball team,” Verlin said.