Mistakes cost the Idaho men’s basketball team Wednesday as the Samford Bulldogs defeated the Vandals 75-58 in their first ever meeting to wrap up Idaho’s final Mean Green Challenge game in Denton, Texas.
The Vandals had a 12-10 lead after a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Chad Sherwood. It was Idaho’s last lead as turnovers, fouls and missed shots plagued the Vandals for the remainder of the game.
Idaho’s misfortunes led to a 21-4 run by Samford.
“What (Samford) was able to do was attack the basket,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “We had a tough time with their guards. I thought they did a great job of playing to their strengths and I didn’t think we did a great job of playing to our strengths. I also thought we lost our discipline a little bit and that really frustrates me.”
Verlin said missed shots from around the basket was a detriment in Idaho’s loss.
“We didn’t finish our ball around the rim,” Verlin said. “We had a number of paint touches to score our ball around the rim and had a number of guys at the high post wide open. At some point you got to step up and make some plays.”
The Vandals shot 36.7 percent from the field and turned the ball over 20 times for the second straight game.
“We had a lot of unforced turnovers, but that’s just from a lack of focus,” Verlin said. “These guys are disappointed, but we’ll treat it as a learning experience and get better.”
After scoring all 15 points in Tuesday’s momentous 15-1 run against Troy, sophomore guard Victor Sanders scored three points Wednesday, all from the free-throw line.
Idaho connected on 55.2 percent of its free throws.
Sanders received a technical foul for taunting after Idaho prevented the Bulldogs from scoring in the first two and a half minutes of the second half.
The Vandals reduced their deficit to no lower than 13 in the second half as the Bulldogs ended the Mean Green Challenge undefeated.
Two Bulldog players scored more than 20 points. Guard Christen Cunningham finished with 26 points and Darius Jones-Gibson scored 21 points.
Junior guard Perrion Callandret led Idaho with a career-high 18 points and sophomore forward Skyler White led Idaho with eight rebounds.
The Vandals dropped to 4-2 overall and finished 2-1 at the Mean Green Challenge.
Idaho heads back home for its next three games, starting with Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Memorial Gym.
“We did a lot of good things,” Verlin said. “We had a lot of guys that played a lot better and we got to get ourselves a little more seasoned as we head into some real tough games coming up, like Northern Illinois Saturday.”
Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles