The Vandals brought home a nail-biting 73-67 victory against Northern Colorado Thursday night.
Idaho redshirt freshman Jake Straughan led the Vandals with 23 points. The guard finished the night 6-7 from the perimeter and 5-6 from the free throw line.
The Vandals faced an aggressive Northern Colorado defense early in the matchup that included a strong half-court press.
Idaho relied on a strong performance from Straughan midway through the game to gain momentum.
“I came into the second half really aggressive,” Straughan said. “And shot I was going to get, I was going to take it.”
Senior guard Chris Sarbaugh said Straughan’s performance helped the team’s morale in the second half.
“Our defense was struggling a little bit,” Sarbaugh said. “We obviously weren’t finding ways to score, and he not only made shots but he gave us energy on defense and gave us new hope. It really got our confidence going again.”
Idaho head coach Don Verlin said he saw more energy coming from the Bears in the first half than the Vandals. But he said the team picked up the pace in the second half of play.
“We were able to lock them down and hold them to one shot and make it tough on them to score,” Verlin said. “I was happy with our defensive effort and our rebounding effort in the second half.”
The Vandals finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field and 57 percent from behind the arc.
“I thought we did a good job executing our offense,” Verlin said. “This game is so much about momentum and usually when you make shots you play a little harder and that’s what happened.”
Before the matchup, junior guard Perrion Callandret was spotted dressed in uniform and going through warmups with the team. The junior will spend one more week on the sideline as he recovers from a foot injury.
“(The trainers) have allowed him to run around without any defense on him,” Verlin said. “He’s getting to where he can run now, but it’s not at full speed.”
Sophomore guard Vic Sanders has also missed the last three weeks of play and is recovering from a broken shooting hand. Verlin said the team is confident that they will be at full strength before the conference tournament next month.
The Vandals are scheduled to face North Dakota Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum.
Mihaela Karst can be reached at [email protected]