Idaho seeks revenge in rematch against EWU
Following four consecutive defeats, the Idaho men’s basketball team ended its skid last Saturday with an 83-79 win over Northern Colorado.
Jay Anderson | Argonaut
Senior point guard Mike Scott eyes his opponent while playing de- fense in the Vandals 89-80 loss against Eastern Washington Jan. 10 in the Cowan Spectrum. The Vandals play EWU again this Saturday.
The Vandals now turn their attention to Eastern Washington. EWU has already beat Idaho once this season, as the Eagles escaped Moscow with an 89-86 victory Jan. 10.
“They beat us here, so anytime you get a chance to get revenge on a team, you always try and take advantage of it,” Idaho sophomore guard Sekou Wiggs said. “We already know that we can beat any team in this league … we have a lot of talent and if we can put that together and play with each other … then we can really get this thing rolling.”
Wiggs and his teammates will get their chance for revenge, 2 p.m. Saturday in Cheney, Washington.
While the Vandals (8-10, 3-4 Big Sky) attempt to climb up the Big Sky standings, the Eagles (15-5, 6-1 Big Sky) will try to avoid moving down. Eastern is one of three teams remaining with only one loss in conference competition. Montana and Sacramento State are the other two.
“It’s a big opportunity this week,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “Eastern is the best team in the league, and we got a chance to go up there and see what we can get done.”
With an average of 82.6 points per game, Eastern Washington enters the contest ranked No. 5 in the country in scoring. This could pose a problem to a Vandal defense ranked No. 322 in adjusted defense, allowing an average of 111.1 points per 100 possessions.
The Vandals use pack line defense, which Wiggs said is all about trust.
“It’s all about knowing that if you play pressure defense and your man gets by you, then you have your brother back there to back you up,” Wiggs said.
While it might allow more 3-point attempts, Wiggs said the defense is designed to stop opposing players from driving to the basket.
“You do allow 3s, but statistics show that if you allow more layups than 3s, then you typically come away with more losses,” Wiggs said. “At the beginning of the season, it took some getting used to. We thought we were playing it right, but we weren’t. Now we’re sealing that gap quicker, so then they have more passes than shots.”
The Eagles’ Tyler Harvey could be the kryptonite to the pack line defense, though. The sophomore shooting guard currently leads the nation in scoring, averaging 24 points per game.
Idaho also has the ability to score. With an average of 77.2 points per game, the Vandals are the No. 25 ranked team in the country in that category.
Despite the scoring prowess, Verlin said he blames sloppy play on offense for the Vandals’ struggles on defense.
“Offensively, over the last three games, we haven’t taken care of the ball well enough and that’s hurt our defense tremendously,” Verlin said.
Even though the team lost four of its last five games, Verlin believes the Vandals are one of the better teams in the conference.
“We still feel good about ourselves,” Verlin said. “There’s a lot of parity in this league … I really believe if we’re right and we can sustain our intensity, we can beat anybody in the league, on any given night, wherever it’s played at, and I really believe that. And I think this team will eventually do that. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]