A literal last minute 3-pointer from senior forward Stephen Madison allowed the Idaho men’s basketball team to go into overtime and eventually win against Texas-Pan American on Saturday in the Cowan Spectrum. With the last-second save, the Vandals squeaked by with a win that was looking like it would be a loss.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Idaho senior Stephen Madison attempts a jumper during Idaho’s 70-63 overtime victory against Texas-Pan American Saturday in the Cowan Spectrum. Madison led the Vandals with 22 points in the win.
Saturday, the team was suffering an off-night with poor 3-point and free-throw shooting.
But in the end, the Vandals beat the the Broncs 70-63 in their second overtime victory over UTPA.
“We’re getting better, but it’s baby steps,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “We’re young and a lesson that has to be learned (is) that every night in the WAC conference, they’re going to come to play. And, there is a ton of very good coaches in this conference that are going to get their team ready to play and if you aren’t ready to play, they can make it tough on you.”
The Vandals have seen a trend in WAC play this season of following each conference win with a two-game losing streak. That trend finally came to an end Saturday.
“It feels great, we got two in a row,” senior forward Stephen Madison said. “We had a rough first half of conference play, we just need to continue this in the second half and try to keep these wins coming.”
The win did not come easy. The Vandals struggled on offense, turning over the ball 21 times. Idaho had a cold shooting night with 44.3 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from the 3-point line. The Vandals also went an eight-minute span in the first half without scoring.
“There was a lid on the basket or something,” Verlin said. “For whatever reason, we couldn’t throw it in the ocean. I thought we had a number of good looks tonight. I was really happy with how hard we battled and found a way to win, when we did not play our best offensive game.”
Despite the horrid shooting night, Verlin said he still wanted his players to keep shooting from outside.
“Connor Hill is going to break all the 3-point records in University of Idaho history and Stephen Madison is arguably in the top 10 or 15 players in Idaho history,” Verlin said.
With low shooting percentages, the Vandals relied on sound defense to keep them in the game.
“I think we were able to get stops and that’s what helped us,” Hill said. “Even though the shots weren’t falling, we were able to get stops and that helped us stay in the game.”
The Vandals trailed by three, with a minute left in regulation, but Madison hit a 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime.
“That’s probably as big as shot as I remember him making,” Verlin said. “He has made a few of them, but that one was a big one.”
Madison, with 22 points and 13 rebounds, has been a standout all season. He has led the team in scoring in 16 of the 24 games.
The Vandals shook off the cold shooting and got hot in overtime going 2-of-2 from the 3-point line, leading them to 14 points in the period, giving them a seven-point win.
Sekou Wiggs added 15 points and eight rebounds of his own and is on roll ever since coming back from his injury. He’s now had back-to-back games with double-digit points.
“Sekou is a good basketball player and I think he is just growing up,” Verlin said. “We’re getting him experience, we’re getting him time and we’ve been able to get him a lot of minutes. He was starting to play pretty well before he got hurt. He had 17 at Idaho State, he had some signs that he was going to play good.”
Idaho will try to carry on its momentum Feb. 13, when it travels down to Cal State-Bakersfield to take on the Roadrunners.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]