Idaho came up short against Northern Colorado Thursday for the second time this season, falling 80-63 in the Cowan Spectrum.
“They are a good team,” Verlin said. “We knew they are a good team, they beat us a month ago but you know, there are standards in this program about how hard you play and the behavior you distribute, you demonstrate when you are out on the court and we didn’t live up to that standard tonight.
Idaho was cold as ice to open the rematch contest against the Bears.
Senior forward Brayon Blake appeared to make the first shot of the game with a fade away 2-pointer, but a traveling call on the Bears retracted the points and Idaho was back to square one.
It wasn’t until after the five-minute mark that the Vandals hit the first shot of the game with a layup from senior guard Victor Sanders. At this point, the opponents already had five points.
Idaho struggled to build any momentum while the Bears continued to drive up their score. Blake gave his best effort to break the momentum with a thwarting block to electrify the crowd.
Despite attempts from the Vandals to slow down the opponents, Northern Colorado looked unstoppable. The Bears went on an 9-0 run to shut out the Vandals and claim a 21-9 advantage midway through the opening half.
The Bears later went on a scoring drought of their own, opening up a window for the trailing Vandals. Senior forward Arkadiy Mkrtychyan took advantage of the window, hitting a layup to close the score gap to 24-16 with less than nine minutes until the half.
Northern Colorado kept Idaho at a distance throughout the remainder of the quarter, building as large as a 16-point cushion. The Vandals were able to trim it down, but not enough. Idaho went into the break down 41-28.
Sanders led the way in scoring for the Vandals with 18 points on 7-12 shooting in just 15 minutes of play.
As a team, Idaho hit 42 percent from the floor but struggled from deep, hitting less than 15 percent on 1-7 attempts.
After the first 20 minutes of play, the opponents were hitting 48 percent from field goal range and 57 percent from beyond the arc.
The Bears spent the beginning of the second half building out their lead, pushing it out to a game-high 21 points on a 10-0 run at the 14-minute mark.
Idaho wasn’t quite done yet. The Vandals chipped away at Northern Colorado’s lead over the next eight minutes, pulling the game within nine points to 64-55 with seven minutes left to play. The momentum on the court translated to the stands where fans turned up the volume and picked up the energy that was lacking in the beginning part of the game.
There was a brief break in the contest minutes later when Northern Colorado’s Jalen Sanders fell to the floor after shooting the ball with an apparent head wound. The opposing Sanders walked off the floor on his own before the game resumed.
“It’s been a tough week for Jalen,” Northern Colorado head coach Jeff Linder said. “He got popped in the shoulder a little before we got here, wasn’t sure if he would play tonight but then he got popped in the head. He will be OK, he is a tough tough kid, man. It is the reason why he has won at every level he has been at.”
Oddly enough, this seemed to snap the streak Idaho looked to be building and the Bears handled it from there. The opponents once again built out a 21-point lead before Idaho trimmed it down to just 17 after two pairs of free throws from freshman guard Geno West and Blake to close the game.
Northern Colorado beat Idaho at its own game, out-rebounding the Vandals 35-25. On the scoring side, the Bears had five athletes finish in double-digits compared to just one for the home team.
Sanders finished the night with a team-high 26 points and three assists. Blake was the second highest scorer of the night for Idaho with nine points and four boards.
The Silver and Gold knocked down nearly 44 percent from the floor but only hit 25 percent on 5-20 from range.
“I basically didn’t have this team ready to play tonight, it falls on me and nobody else,” Verlin said. “We will get it fixed, I guarantee we will get it fixed. It may take one practice tomorrow, it may take two practices tomorrow, it may take three practices and an extra film session but we will get it fixed.”
Idaho moves ahead to another rematch against North Dakota 7 p.m. Saturday in the Cowan Spectrum.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @mere0415