The Vandal men’s basketball team returned home to the Cowan Spectrum Thursday night, after being on the road last week, where they went 1-1, bringing their record to 7-12 overall and 1-4 in WAC play.
Photos by Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Bira Seck pauses after fouling against Utah Valley in the second half of Idaho’s 71-66 loss Thursday in the Cowan Spectrum. The Vandals move to 1-4 in the WAC with the loss.
Not only did they host their opponent, Utah Valley, they also hosted a nice sized student section, which brought in their biggest crowd since the Washington State game.
The large crowd would be treated to yet another close finish, which seems to be a trend with this year’s men’s basketball team. The game would come down to the wire, but in the end, the Vandals would fall to Utah Valley, with a final score of 71-66.
“Obviously its tough when you can’t find a way to win the basketball game,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “It was the same story all night long, we couldn’t hit an open shot, I thought we had a number of wide open shots that we weren’t able to finish and against a good Utah Valley team, you cant let those opportunities slip away.”
The Vandals would be shorthanded, missing three key players and were limited to only seven players logging minutes this game.
According to Verlin, Glen Dean sprained his ankle at practice on Monday and has been in a walking boot since; his return date is unknown at this point. Sekou Wiggs was out with a grade one MCL sprain and is expected to be back Thursday.
The third member of the team who wasn’t playing was redshirt freshman Ty Egbert. He was serving his first game of a two-game suspension, due to kicking a New Mexico State player in the stomach against the Aggies on Jan. 11.
With the three key players out, including team leader Dean, his brother Perrion Callendret would receive a boost in minutes and was looked upon down the stretch to hit some shots.
“I thought Perrion did some good things tonight, he was able to get out there and play,” Verlin said. “I would have liked for him to make a few more shots, but I thought he played hard, he was energetic, I thought he played very well given the circumstances.”
Callendret would miss some key three pointers down the stretch, that would have given the Vandals the lead. He would end the night with six points, going 2-of-10 from the floor, 0-4 from the three-point line.
Despite missing key shots, the consensus feeling among his team and coaches was that Callendret still played very well.
“Perrion played great,” Mike Scott said. “I told him that I was proud of him, I loved the way he played tonight.”
Stephen Madison would leave it all out on the floor this game, playing in 38 of the 40 minutes, despite suffering a rib injury late in the game.
“I’m beat up, that was a tough lost, there is nothing else to it,” a deflated Madison said.
He would end the game with 21 points.
The Vandals will be back in action on Saturday, when they welcome Cal State Bakersfield to the Cowan Spectrum.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]