Idaho Interim Head Coach Zac Claus was able to check off his first win with the Vandals as their new coach Tuesday night.
The Vandals got off to the right start during their season opener, taking down Evergreen State College 88-82.
Evergreen State was coming off a winning streak of two games. One of those games had a final score of 103-60.
“Whole lot of credit to Evergreen State to compete the way they did,” Claus said after the game. “To continue to fight down the stretch and not let up, I mean I give them a whole lot of credit.”
The Vandals may have lost the first couple of exhibition games but won when the final score actually counted.
The Vandals hard work led to five of their players scoring double digit points.
“We lost a couple exhibition games,” junior guard Ja’Vary Christmas said. “But you know, just coming together and getting that first win, you know it’s only up from here. It’s great.”
The Vandals were down in points most of the first half but were able to go into halftime with a lead of 43 to 38. Then in the second half, the Vandals outscored the Geoducks 45-44 to pick up their first win of the season.
Senior guard Trevon Allen racked up 23 points on his own, with Christmas scoring 17 points. Graduate transfer forward Quinton Forrest scored 15 points during the game as well.
With 17 seconds left in the game and the Vandals only leading two, Vandals were able to close off the highly contested game.
“Basketball is just a game of running, you know it goes up and down,” Christmas said. “It just comes to who can execute at the end and just finish the game off strong.”
Coming together as a collective unit helped propel the Vandals to their first win of the season. The team hopes their bond will grow stronger throughout the rest of the season.
“When we play as a team, I feel like were very hard to beat,” Christmas said. “I think that this is just a baseline, as we move on through the season, we just get better and better playing together.”
The growth in this team is starting to come together during the early parts of the season, proving that they can the job done.
The Vandals are getting ready to hit the road for the next couple weeks, being back home until November 23.
With that, the Vandals hope to carry the momentum from this win onto their next game.
“We gotta continue to have a collective toughness about us,” Claus said. “Rather it be defensively or just staying together.”
Idaho will play UC Riverside 2 p.m. Nov. 9. in Riverside, CA.
Elizabeth Carbajal can be reached at [email protected]