The Idaho men’s basketball team rallied from behind and salvaged a 65-63 victory against North Texas Monday as a part of the Mean Green Showcase in Denton, Texas.
“We made a lot of real big plays down the stretch,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “There was no waiver in their commitment in what they were doing and I was proud of them. We hit a little adversity with foul trouble with about everybody on the bench, but I was just happy with the way our guys just continued to fight and find a way to win against a good basketball team.”
In the closing stages of the second half, Idaho overcame a 14-0 run from North Texas.
A 3-pointer by junior guard Perrion Callandret, who scored 13 points, gave Idaho a 64-63 lead with 1:18 remaining.
Verlin said Idaho’s defense allowed the Vandals to rally back from a 51-42 deficit.
“We knuckled down defensively,” Verlin said. “We got a lot of big stops and a few big rebounds. Then we started to execute a little better on offense and started to make a few baskets.”
Idaho sophomore guard Victor Sanders and junior forward Ty Egbert led Idaho with 14 points each.
Egbert’s 14 points were a career best and he made the final free throw to maintain Idaho’s lead.
“Ty played very well,” Verlin said. “Scored his ball inside and was big in there. You got to be happy of the way he played. I was happy of the way he rebounded and (the Mean Green) are a very good rebounding team.”
The Vandals struggled with fouls as Idaho committed 17 out of their 30 fouls in the second half with seven Vandals committing at least three fouls.
Sophomore forward Arkadiy Mkrtychyan scored two points and grabbed a rebound, but was benched in the second half after committing his fourth personal foul. It was Mkrtychyan’s first start of the season after being sidelined in the first three games due to injury.
Verlin said he’s happy to have Mkrtychyan back healthy.
“He really changes our team,” Verlin said. “It’s good to overcome adversity and once we get him back in sync, I think you’ll see this team really improve. We’ve done a good job without him but we need him to play good basketball.”
Despite the comeback win, Verlin said he was disappointed in Idaho’s free-throw shooting to end the game.
“We got to step up and knock those down,” Verlin said. “We were shooting a pretty good percentage until we missed five out of our last six (free throws).”
Idaho shot 61.1 percent (22 of 36) from the free-throw line.
North Texas shot 48.9 percent from the field compared to Idaho’s 42.2 percent.
“I’m happy with the start but not satisfied,” Verlin said. “We got to buckle down here and prove to ourselves as well as everyone else that we can come back two nights in a row and can play some good Vandal basketball.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles