After a slow start, Idaho came storming back to trounce the defending Big Sky Champion North Dakota, 96-71, Saturday night in the Cowan Spectrum during the university’s Tribal Nations Night.
Idaho underwent a massive resuscitation after once going down 16 points to sweep the regular season series with the Hawks.
The initial feeling was woeful from an offensive perspective, but a delayed spark ignited by commanding defense and a breakout of overabundant scorers led to complete Vandal (14-7, BSC 6-3) dominance, especially down the stretch.
Senior guard Victor Sanders again had his hand in the scoring cookie-jar. A striking euro-step lay-in early in the second half propelled the senior into sole ownership of second place on the all-time Idaho scoring list.
With 26 points, 10-10 on freebies, Sanders jumped forward Stephen Madison, who also played at Jefferson High School in Portland and under head coach Don Verlin at Idaho from 2010-14.
Sanders stayed the humble course postgame, deflecting attention to his teammates.
“I mean I heard it, you know, them announce it, but credit to these guys…” Sanders said. “It’s not everyday you get to go down in the history books but I got to give all the credit to my teammates because there’s five people on the court.”
The first half practically began as a direct continuation of Idaho’s last game out against Northern Colorado, a disheartening drubbing in which the Vandals held none of the momentum.
Hawk forward Dale Jones knocked in two quick 3-pointers, and North Dakota (7-14, BSC 2-7) rapidly jumped out to an 8-0 lead with the assistance of yet another sloppy Vandal start.
For three minutes, the Idaho band was forced to remain engaged in their “Let’s Go Vandals,” chant, which per tradition, cannot end until Idaho scores a bucket.
Led by Jones, who dropped 16 in the first, the Hawks were unprecedented on the offensive end, but only for about half of the first period.
At just under the 3:00 mark, senior guard Chad Sherwood knocked in a triple, and Sanders followed it up with an abrupt backcourt swipe. Sanders found senior forward and reigning Big Sky player of the week Brayon Blake open beyond the arc, and just like that, the Vandals had captured the momentum.
Sherwood nailed another trey with five seconds left, which was followed with an additional backcourt steal, this time, by Blake, who hit a falling corner 3-ball at the buzzer to give Idaho a 46-41 lead at the break.
Idaho, now 11-1 when leading at the half, was unable to hit from downtown until 2:44 in the first. However, prowess on the offensive boards, points off turnovers and exploitation of UND’s 14 first-half fouls kept the Vandals within striking distance.
Reminiscent of the last few minutes of the first, the second half was an offensive demonstration put on by Idaho.
This scoring pageantry would not have been possible if it weren’t for Idaho’s prevailing defense, especially in the three-quarter court press. Again and again, the Hawks looked for a way in which they could advance the ball past half court, but this often was an unexpectedly difficult task with the press-play of Sanders and senior guard Perrion Callandret.
Despite giving up 12 turnovers, compared to 13 for UND, the Vandals were able to exploit these giveaways, while the Hawks were not. Idaho tallied 27 points off turnovers, while UND totaled seven.
Rebounding played a considerable role in the triumph, notably on the offensive end. Idaho finished +18 in rebounding margin and ravaged UND, 14-4, on the offensive boards.
“You look at our season this year, when we outrebound our opponent, usually means a W,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. “That’s what I really stressed in the day off, (after) we got outrebounded by Northern Colorado.”
The Hawks flipped a complete offensive-180 from the first to second half. After knocking in over 70 percent of their shots from the field midway through the first, the Hawks’ shooting trickled all the way down to 47 percent at culmination – UND went 1-12 from deep in the second.
Blake, while shooting 69 percent from the field, recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Again Blake proved himself as a Vandal x-factor, demonstrating his innate ability to drop-in buckets from anyplace on the hardwood.
With confidence restored, Idaho will travel to Rip City for a Thursday night rematch with the Portland State Vikings in Portland, Oregon.
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @coltonclark95.