The Idaho men’s basketball team looked to move on from the 73-45 loss to Southern Utah at home by breaking their five-game losing streak. Idaho went on a three-game, six day road stretch, starting with Northern Arizona (NAU). Interim Head Coach Zac Claus and his squad prepared to win their first road game and second win in the Big Sky Conference (BSC), however, Idaho (5-15, 1-8 BSC) fell short to NAU (12-7, 6-4 BSC) 77-72 last Saturday in Flagstaff, Arizona.
In the first half, the Lumberjacks opened up the scoring with a three-point play from sophomore guard Cameron Shelton. Northern Arizona kept a small lead over the Vandals until senior guard Trevon Allen converted his third straight three-pointer to tie the game 13-13. The game was kept close throughout the first half with seven ties and four lead changes, but NAU led at halftime 41-38. Allen led all players in scoring with 19 points.
“I love the way Trevon was able to bounce back, he had a wonderful start to the game. He was taking shots in rhythm. We rely on him to score the ball and that’s exactly what he did,” Claus said.
NAU got into rhythm to start the second half, scoring the first four points before redshirt junior guard Marquell Fraser recorded an offensive rebound and scored on the other end. With less than seven minutes left, Shelton scored a three pointer to put the Lumberjacks ahead by 10 points, but Idaho responded with an 11-3 run to reduce the deficit to two. In the final two minutes, NAU sealed the game with late free throws with six out of their last ten points coming from the line. Allen led Idaho for the 14th time this season with 26 points.
“All that’s
been going through my mind since Tuesday was, ‘can this group rally around each
other and get their competitive spirit back,’ and they had it. We simply have
to continue to do a couple more things just a little bit better,” Claus said.
Idaho traveled to Sacramento, California, Monday night to face off against the Sacramento State Hornets. The Vandals (6-15, 2-8 BSC) captured their first road win of the season against the Hornets (11-9, 4-7 BSC) 67-53. Idaho broke its six-game losing streak with help from Trevon Allen, who recorded 23 points and eight rebounds in 37 minutes of play.
Allen opened things up for the Vandals and scored the first seven points in the first half. Allen hit a jump-shot at 16:53 to give the Vandals a 4-2 lead early in the half, and Idaho kept the lead for the rest of the game. Idaho kept pushing offensively, shooting 66.7 percent. The Vandals led the first half 39-23.
“We built the lead by taking great shots, executing, getting the looks that we wanted and not settling for questionable jumpers,” Claus said. “We expended some energy in the first half creating that distance. We took care of the ball for the first 20 minutes.”
The pace slowed down in the second half for both teams. The first score came in after two minutes when junior guard Bryce Fowler hit a three-pointer for the Hornets. The Vandals held a comfortable double-digit lead, but Sacramento State rallied back as they put pressure on Idaho and forced turnovers to reduce the lead. Fowler hit a jump-shot with three minutes and 18 seconds remaining in the game, bringing the score to 55-47. But the Vandals fought back making 10 free throws in under three minutes to bring their lead back to double-digits.
“Our guys are continuing to learn. They’re continuing to do what we ask of them and I’m beyond happy for them to have the result like this tonight,” Claus said.
Idaho (6-16, 2-9 BSC) finished its road trip with a tough loss against Montana State (12-10, 6-5 BSC) 72-50 Thursday night. Allen led the way for the Vandals with 19 points and junior guard Damen Thacker added 10 points in support. Allen led the team in scoring for the 18th time this season and now sits 13th on the Vandals’ All-Time Scoring List with 1152 points.
“We hit some shots which kept us in it, but we just felt it getting away from us a little bit,” Claus said.
The game was tied 7-7 early in the first half and then the Vandals would go on a 7-0 scoring run to take the lead. Both teams would go back and forth offensively and defensively to tie the game 32-32 at halftime. Idaho would score the first four points of the second half, but MSU would outscore the Vandals 40-18 for the rest of the 20 minutes. Montana State outrebounded Idaho 39-20.
The Vandals will return to Cowan Spectrum on Saturday to face-off against the Montana Grizzlies. The last time Idaho played against Montana, they fell short by four points in Missoula. The Vandals will look to turn things around and pick up a win for the home crowd.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @arminmesinovic