Vandal basketball tipped off the season in a close loss, making for a rough start to the 2019 season. 

The Vandals lost 88 – 81 against Central Washington Wildcats Tuesday night inside Memorial Gym. 

While there are a couple of familiar faces on this year’s team, there were a lot of new faces.

“No need to panic yet,” Idaho senior guard Trevon Allen said in a press conference after the game. “First game with first time all of us being on the court together playing somebody else in a game-like scenario with all the game-like factors. No need to panic yet, definitely a way to learn and move forward.”

After the end of the first half, the Vandals were down 41 – 33. Central Washington knew  the Vandals were continuously looking to  Allen to see if he was  open. 

A couple times  there were three people guarding Allen. That gave an opportunity for redshirt junior guard Marquell Fraser and graduate student forward Quinton Forrest to tally up some points in this game.

Six Vandals made their debut last night. Forrest made the most out of his debut, finishing with 15 points in the game.

“Quinton Forrest, I think he’s really aggressive and plays really hard,” Allen said. “I think he had a great game tonight and I think he’ll continue to do that this season.”

Once the second half was underway, the Vandals were able to come off strong.

The Vandals were able to cut into the Central Washington lead, but ultimately fell short in the end.  

“In terms of improvement, it’s just a daily work ethic,” said Interim Head Coach Zac Claus. “It’s understanding that every little thing matters.”

The Vandals were able to outscore the Wildcats in the second half 48 – 41. But the damage was already done from the Wildcats’ impressive first half performance. 

“I think defensively is what kind of hurt us throughout the entire game,” Allen said.

Even though the Vandals found themselves struggling, there are bright spots to take away after the close exhibition loss. 

After all, this is the first exhibition game for the Vandals as well as the first game where this team was able to step onto the court with many new faces . 

With all these new team members, it might be a while before they can truly connect, but for now the team will continue to learn how to build chemistry.

“Right now, it’s the middle of October and we’re still growing,” Claus said. “We’re going to improve and we got to do that collectively. We got to continue to compete defensively, work our tails off.”

The Vandals will play Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. against Lewis-Clark State College inside Memorial Gym to close out exhibition play. 

Elizabeth Carbajal can be reached at [email protected]

(Top photo: Leslie Kiebert | Argonaut)