The Idaho men’s basketball team held the country’s top scoring freshman – Jordon Varnado – scoreless in the Vandals’ 69-63 win over the Troy Trojans Tuesday at the Mean Green Challenge in Denton, Texas.
Idaho went on a 22-3 run in the second half to take a lead it would not give up.
Sophomore guard Victor Sanders led the Vandals with 15 points and junior guard Perrion Callandret followed closely behind with 13 points.
The Vandals went on a 15-1 run in the second half in which Sanders scored all 15 of the points.
Sanders started the game 0 of 8 from the field but then hit four straight 3-pointers and made three free throws to give Idaho its biggest lead of the game.
“I don’t think he had any better shots in the second half than the first,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “He just made them. I told him at halftime that he’s a shooter and that those shots would fall. He really stayed with us mentally and hit some big shots for us in the second half.”
Troy responded late in the second half with a run of its own. The Trojans finished the game on a 12-1 run but Idaho had built up a big enough lead to withstand Troy’s late offensive surge.
“I thought we did a great job moving the ball and attacked their zone,” Verlin said. “We showed a lot of heart. It’s tough to play in this kind of atmosphere where it feels like a closed scrimmage. I couldn’t be prouder of them for that.”
Sophomore forward Arkadiy Mkrtychyan also scored in double figures for the Vandals, finishing with 10 points and adding five rebounds.
Idaho senior forward Nahshon George tied his career high with eight points and set a new career high with 10 rebounds.
Troy guard Wesley Person scored a game-high 27 points.
Idaho led 29-26 at halftime but both teams’ offenses came alive as the Vandals outscored the Trojans 40-37 in the second half. Idaho shot 52.2 percent from the field in the second half.
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]