Calling it a career night doesn’t begin to describe the night that Stephen Madison had Saturday down in Orem, Utah, even though it was. A performance that will go down in Idaho’s history books sounds more appropriate.
Madison dropped 42 points against Utah Valley, tearing his way through the paint at will to score 14 2-point baskets, getting to the line 11 times and knocking in 2 3-point shots.
All in all, Madison finished his career-high in scoring night with only 21 shot attempts and only five field goal misses. That’s two points per shot attempt, efficiency that doesn’t happen very often. And to think, he did it even with a minor ankle injury sustained in the first half.
The only thing that was missing was a win.
Idaho fell short of Utah Valley 89-88 in Idaho’s second one-point loss in the last five games the Vandals move to 4-8 in Western Athletic Conference play. The Vandals currently sit at the No. 7 seed for the conference tournament, a last place tie with UT-Pan American with the tie-breaker.
“Yeah, Stephen played a whale of a game, would’ve been nice to a get a win,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “What a great performance, he was exhausted out there, turned his ankle there at the end of the first half, taped his ankle out there.”
Madison was one of many Vandals scoring with ease on Utah Valley. Problem was, Utah Valley was scoring with even more ease. The Wolverines shot 60-percent from the field in the back-and-forth scoring affair. Holton Hunsaker and Zach Nelson combined for 49 points on 18-of-27 shooting.
Hunsaker’s 3-point make with 2:29 remaining in the game put Utah Valley up 87-83. It was a crucial make for the Wolverines, taking any momentum away from Idaho that it had accumulated with Madison’s performance.
Idaho still had an opportunity to tie late in the game. Sekou Wiggs headed to the free throw line with 13 seconds left in the game with an opportunity to tie. Missing the tail end of the one-and-one, Idaho collected the rebound, but Utah Valley was quick to double team Madison. The result was a low-percentage look from Glen Dean on the baseline followed by a 25-foot attempt from Connor Hill. Neither was close.
“We didn’t defend it like we needed to tonight, they’re good, they did a good job of holding on to the ball,” Verlin said. “Hunsaker made some big shots, we couldn’t get him guarded.”
Unlike some of Idaho’s other losses in this fashion, Verlin said he couldn’t say anything bad about the effort put on the court.
“We gave an unbelievable effort, I was on them pretty hard because I don’t think they gave the effort at Bakersfield. You never feel good about a loss but you have to feel good about the effort,” he said.
A key stat that stands out from Idaho’s second half — That Idaho didn’t hit a 3-point shot in the second half after making eight in the first half.
The Vandals now return home for an out-of-conference game Tuesday at Memorial Gym against Cal State Northridge, to be followed by Idaho’s final home game of the season on Feb. 22 against Grand Canyon. Both will take place at Mem Gym because of Jazzfest. Both are also Madison’s final home games as a Vandal.
The performance Madison put out on Saturday night makes him the most accomplished scorer of the Don Verlin era and moves him to fourth all-time on the Idaho scoring list, passing Kyle Barone. It also puts him squarely in discussion for WAC player of the year, the award taken home by Barone last season.
Verlin hopes there are a lot of fans there to Madison farewell.
“I don’t want to say you owe it to him, he’s had an unbelievable senior year,” Verlin said. “Stephen has put in a lot of time and effort and really worked hard. He’s done everything you’re supposed to as a student-athlete.”