Idaho was looking for their third victory in conference play when they took on Weber State Thursday. However, the Vandals comeback effort fell short as the Wildcats won 73-65.
Coming into the game, the Vandals were 8-13 (2-6) and had just lost 73-67 to Northern Colorado over the weekend. On the opposite end, Weber State had won two-in-a-row coming into Thursday’s matchup. The Wildcats were 10-10 overall and 6-2 in the Big Sky this season.
The game could not have started worse for the Vandals as Weber State went on a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the game. The Vandals answered with a 5-0 run of their own with junior forward/center Isaac Jones scoring a layup and sophomore guard Yusuf Salih making a three to cut the lead to 7-5.
Weber went on another huge run, this time 11-5, pushing their lead to 18-8. Idaho tried to counter but couldn’t get anything going. Idaho got a little momentum with 1:17 left in the first half when fifth year guard Divant’e Moffitt made a floater to cut the lead to 38-22 going into halftime.
The first half was the Weber State show with them shooting over 60% in every category. They were 15/24 from the field, 6/9 from beyond the arc and 2/3 from the free throw line. Junior guard Steven Verplancken led all scorers with 10 points.
The Vandals once again struggled in the first half, shooting 8/24 from the field, 1/8 from three-point range and 5/10 from the free throw line. Jones led the Vandals with seven points.
Just like they did in the first half, the Wildcats started hot in the second, going on a 6-3 run to push their lead to 44-25. The Vandals started to pick it up as they would outscore the wildcats 10-7 over the next four minutes. Moffitt made a jump shot, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to 55-37 heading into the media timeout.
The Vandals would catch fire as they went on a 15-5 run. Fifth-year guard Trey Smith made four three pointers during the run, cutting the Wildcats lead to 60-51. With the run, the energy was back in the arena for the Vandals.
Weber tried to put the Vandals away, but Idaho would not let up. The two teams were trading baskets until the Vandals had the game down to 70-65 with 47 seconds to go. The Wildcats would escape a second half collapse as Smith’s three pointer fell short, and the Wildcats hit three of their final four free throws to win the game 73-65.
Idaho improved greatly in the second half as they shot 13/25 from the field, 8/16 from three and a perfect 9/9 from the free throw line. Weber was not as good in the second half as they went 11/22 from the field, 1/4 from three and 12/16 from the free throw line.
For Weber, sophomore forward Dillon Jones finished with 21 points to lead all scorers. He also grabbed 14 rebounds, was an efficient 4/6 from the field and was 12/15 from the foul line. Verplancken added 17 points as he shot 7/12 from the field and 2/4 from three-point range.
For Idaho, Smith led the Vandals for a career high 17 points, scoring all 17 in the second half. He was 5/10 from the field and 5/9 from beyond the arc. Moffitt added 13 points and seven assists while going 5/13 from the field. Jones helped the Vandals with 12 points. He was 5/9 from the field and made 2/3 from the free throw line. Freshman guard Dominique Ford added 10 crucial points, scoring nine in the second half. He went 3/7 from the field with all three of his makes coming from three-point range.
With the loss, the Vandals fell to 8-14 (2-7), losing their second in a row. Weber improved to 11-10 (6-2) and are on a three-game winning streak going into their game against first place Eastern Washington. The Vandals once again let a bad half sink their chances and put them in too deep of a hole to climb out of.
The Vandals will take on in-state rival Idaho State for custody of King Spud today at 2 p.m. in ICCU Arena. Idaho will be looking once again to rebound from a tough home loss and to keep King Spud up in Moscow.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JaydenBarfuss10.