In Idaho’s home opener, the Vandals returned to ICCU Arena and cruised to a dominant 122-48 victory over Walla Walla University.
The opening minutes of the game lit the fuse for the Vandals as fifth year guard Divant’e Moffitt assisted on an ally-oop pass to junior forward Isaac Jones to begin the game. Moffitt would later find redshirt sophomore Terren Frank on the fastbreak for a corner three after the Wolves turned the ball over, a frequent occurrence throughout the night.
Walla Walla’s sophomore guard Andrew Vaughan tried to stop the bleeding with a couple of early three pointers. He was able to bring the game within four at 14-10, but that would be the closest the Wolves would get.. Idaho went on a 17-point run and never looked back, ending the first half with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from redshirt freshman RJ Walker, setting the score at 70-23.
Walla Walla’s inability to convert on their possessions wasn’t the only problem for the Wolves offense. Many of Walla Walla’s turnovers came from Frank, who hunted the Wolves passing lanes all night, ending the game with five of Idaho’s 13 steals. Walla Walla would have 20 turnovers by the end of the night to Idaho’s seven.
After the game Vandal’s head coach Zac Claus said of Frank “He can be a disruptive force defensively.” Claus later remarked that even in victory, he wouldn’t be satisfied on the defensive end of the court.
“Our biggest thing tonight was how many percentages of shots that we contest.” Claus continued. “If you contest shots over and over, your opponent’s field goal percentage is going to go down. So that’s a huge one for us.”
Although the Vandals, especially Frank, had a great game defensively, thay understand that they can continue to grow.
“We know we can make shots, but we need to be more pressed on defense.” Moffitt said. “Staying pressed on defense was our motto of the day.”
This defensive philosophy was one of the main reasons why Idaho was able to gain, and maintain, such an impressive lead throughout the game. The Vandals scored 32 points off Walla Walla turn overs. The Wolves could only muster a shooting percentage of 32.8% by the end of the game while the Vandals ended with a 63.9% shooting percentage for the night.
Even as victory was certain, the Vandals stayed on top of their opponents with coach Claus wanting to push the team to maintain the discipline to guard.
Moffitt reiterated that mentality saying that coach Claus had “challenged the team at halftime to stay locked in and stay as a collective as a team on defense.” Frank would add “(We) respect the game and respect our opponents.”
Looking for their first road win of the season, the Vandals next game will be on Nov. 13 when they face the University of Nebraska Mavericks at noon.
Ricky Simmons can be reached at [email protected]