The Idaho men’s basketball team fell to the offensive power of the Sacramento State in a devastating 65-63 loss Thursday night at the Cowan Spectrum.
Sacramento State (9-9 overall, 2-5 Big Sky) took control of the game in the first half and maintained the lead through the first twenty minutes of play to enter halftime with a 37-21 lead over the Vandals.
“We didn’t come to play,” Idaho sophomore guard Chad Sherwood said in the post-game press conference.
In the first half, the Vandals (12-9 overall, 4-4 Big Sky) shot 33.3 percent from the field and 25 percent from the perimeter. Sacramento State finished the half with 48.3 percent from the field and 40 percent from the three-point range.
Idaho coach Don Verlin said the defensive game plan wasn’t being executed correctly.
“We didn’t do it hard enough and we didn’t do it well enough,” Verlin said. “We allowed them way too many open shots. We just didn’t do a good job defensively.”
Sherwood said the message Verlin had for the team at halftime was simple.
“It’s not over,” Sherwood said. “Just stay with it and eventually our stuff will work, and it did. We just came up a little bit short.”
In the second half, Sherwood stepped up to lead the Vandals with 22 points.
With just under six minutes left in the game, Sherwood drained four 3-pointers — his last cut the deficit to 60-61 with little over a minute left.
“I was just being aggressive,” Sherwood said. “Being down a couple guys, you’ve got to look to attack a little more, so I was just trying to score.”
As the game reached its final moments, the matchup came down to the two narrowly missed free throws from Idaho junior Pat Ingram.
“It hurts right now and there’s nothing you can really say,” Sherwood said. “(Ingram) needs to know it’s not on him, it’s a team game, it’s not those two free throws at the end that lost it.”
“We’re an excellent free throw shooting team,” Verlin said. “We just didn’t make them the last two times.
Verlin commended the junior on his performance.
“Pat is settling in,” Verlin said. “I like the way he played. I thought he gave us a big lift, and he does give us a guard out there that can push the tempo a little bit.”
Despite a poor offensive performance in the first half, Verlin said the team does not need to make any major adjustments for the next game.
“I was really proud of our guys tonight,” Verlin said. “They fought and they fought, and they found a way to have a chance in this game. And that’s all you can tell them to do.”
Sherwood is also very proud of how the Vandals ended the night.
“We didn’t come out on top,” Sherwood said. “But the whole team is what really matters, and we fought back as a team.”
Verlin said that getting the team to settle is what they’ll be focusing on.
“It’s simple really — you just need to play hard every possession,” Verlin said. “I’m not saying we didn’t play hard, but we sure played a lot harder in the second half than we did in the first half.”
Sherwood said that the team is learning to adjust in the absence of leading scorers Perrion Callandret and Victor Sanders.
“We haven’t put two halves together yet,” Sherwood said. “But we’ve put up one half and now we just need to put both of them together. We’re learning and we’re competing as hard as we can.”
The Vandals are scheduled to face Portland State at 7 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum on Saturday.
Mihaela Karst can be reached at [email protected]