The Idaho comeback fell short at home in a 64-75 loss to the Southern Utah Lumberjacks Monday night.
The Vandals (4-17, BSC 1-9) have lost 13 of their past 14 games, their last win coming on January 3rd against Eastern Washington.
The Thunderbirds (10-10, BSC 5-6), in turn, snapped a three-game losing streak with their win on the road.
“We’re continuing to fight,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. “It’s obviously a tough stretch and no one wants it more than the guys in the locker room. We just have to keep fighting.”
The Vandals started Monday’s game aggressive and physical, making their presence known inside the paint to take an early 4-0 lead.
Freshman guard Cameron Tyson drives to the basket against NAU Saturday in Cowan Spectrum.
That would be the only time Idaho had the lead throughout the first half.
The Thunderbirds continuously found open shots from beyond the arc to pull away from the home team.
Southern Utah made five 3-pointers in the first half, a majority of them the product of the Vandals switching to a zone defense.
When Idaho switched back to a man defense, the Vandals were able to contain the Southern Utah offense but couldn’t find much success on the glass allowing the Thunderbirds get eight points off of five offensive rebounds in the half.
“The positive thing is that we responded with our halftime adjustments and played very well defensively in the second half,” Verlin said.
The Vandals needed to find an x-factor in the second half and Idaho freshman guard RayQuawndis Mitchell made his case early.
Mitchell started the second half with a four-point play. Freshman guard Cameron Tyson made sure to answer on the next possession with a trey of his own to give the Vandals a mini 7-0 run to start the second half.
The Thunderbirds would quickly settle back into play to push their lead up to 18 with under 12 minutes left in the game.
Three minutes later, Tyson leads the Vandals on a 9-4 run to cut the Thunderbird lead to 11, giving Idaho an opportunity to make a late game run.
Idaho continued to grind and continued their run to only trail by eight with 2:24 left in the game.
Southern Utah regrouped in the final minutes thanks to late-game free throws to polish off its win on the road.
Despite the hot shooting from the Thunderbirds, Idaho managed to hold them to only a single 3-pointer in the second half.
The Vandals finished the game with 15 turnovers — the ultimate factor in the home loss.
Tyson led all scorers for Idaho with 20 points, shooting nearly 44 percent from the field and sinking six 3-pointers throughout the night.
Idaho will be back on the road this week as they prepare for matchups against Montana and Montana State.
The Vandals will travel to Missoula to take on the Montana Grizzlies 7 p.m. Feb. 7. Stay tuned to Vandal Nation for a full-game recap.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cderemer_VN