On a night where it seemed Stephen Madison could do no wrong, leading the Vandals with 27 points, it was his pass that was stolen in the final seconds of the game that would seal Seattle U’s 68-67 victory over Idaho.
“I got the ball and I thought with the bobble off the rebound, there was only a couple of seconds on the clock to advance it,” Madison said. “So I tried to get it to Connor (Hill) and they intercepted it.”
George Wood | Argonaut
Seattle’s D’Vonne Picket Jr. steals a pass intended for Connor Hill in the final seconds of Seattle’s 68-67 victory over Idaho. The steal sealed the win for the Redhawks.
The Vandals welcomed their rival from the west, Seattle U, to the Cowan Spectrum on Saturday night. The game looked like it might become a blowout with the Vandals holding a 16-point lead with 14:43 left in the game.
It would be a 23-2 run by Seattle in the second half that would be the difference.
“When things started going the other way, we didn’t have any leadership, our heads were down and we had no togetherness,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “We played absolutely un-fundamentally sound basketball for about eight minutes there, and let Seattle U back in the game.”
The Vandals held the WAC’s leading scorer, Isiah Umipig, to only 13 points on the day. His teammates picked up the slack, with three other players scoring in double figures.
“We decided not to guard the last little bit, then we let them back in the game and they beat us,” Verlin said. “We didn’t make simple plays.”
The Vandals lacked execution down the stretch. Connor Hill got called for a five-second violation while inbounding the ball with 8.5 seconds left in the game, giving Seattle U the ball back. They scored quickly on the ensuing inbound to take the lead.
“Lack of discipline, lack of fundamentals, lack of execution, so I guess if that’s worst, it is,” Verlin said. “There’s an old saying in college basketball, ‘players got to play.’ You have to execute when the game is on the line and we didn’t do it tonight.”
Losing a rivalry game is tough, but the Vandals will need to get over this loss quickly because it won’t get any easier when New Mexico State comes to town.
They will be hosting the defending WAC Champions 7 p.m. Thursday in the Cowen Spectrum.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]