After an 82-76 overtime victory over Sacramento State, the Vandals sat at 9-17 (3-9). Eastern came in on a 14-game winning streak, coming out on top in all their conference games. Despite keeping up with the Eagles all game, the Vandals fell apart in the final two minutes. Eastern went on a 13-6 run to get a hard-fought 73-66 victory in an almost sold out ICCU Arena.
Eastern sophomore center Ethan Price hit a lightly contested, straight-on three to open the game. Junior forward/center Isaac Jones countered with a layup off the board to open the scoring for the Vandals. The Vandals followed Jones’ layup with a 5-1 run to take a three-point lead.
Freshman forward Nigel Burris would continue the Vandals hot streak with a three pointer to push the lead to 10-4. Eastern would finally end the drought with four points to cut the lead to 10-8. The Eagles were able to tie the game at ten before sophomore guard Yusuf Salih was fouled on a three-point attempt. He stepped to the line and made all three free throws.
A few plays later, Jones scored four points to extend the lead to 22-16 before Eastern scored six straight points to tie the game. The game heated up, and both teams went shot-for-shot. Idaho held a 31-29 lead with under 30 seconds to go, but a foul by fifth-year guard Trey Smith sent sophomore forward Dane Erikstrup to the line with one second left. Erikstrup hit both free throws to give the Eagles a 31-30 lead at halftime.
The Eagles were efficient shooting the ball, going 10/31 from the field, 3/16 from three and 8/10 from the free-throw line. The Eagles were led by Price with 12 points in the half. Redshirt sophomore guard Steele Venters added seven. The Vandals swarming defense held redshirt junior Tyreese Davis and senior forward Angelo Allegri scoreless.
The Vandals were an efficient 11/28 from the field, 2/9 from beyond the arc and 6/7 from the line. Jones led the Vandals with eight points in the half.
The second half began all Eagles as they went on a 7-0 run to make it 37-30. The Vandals would outscore the Eagles 9-3 and get the lead down to 40-39. The game would once again go back and forth, Jones got the ball in the paint and slammed down a reverse dunk over 6-foot-10, 240-pound Erikstrup to get 3,300 fans to their feet as the Vandals pushed their lead to 46-42.
The game would continue like this with the Vandals and Eagles staying hot. After a late run by the Vandals, they had a 55-51 lead with seven minutes left. Eastern would however outscore the Vandals 6-2 to take a 58-57 lead with just under six minutes to play. Jones would give the Vandals the lead back at 60-59, but also picked up his fourth foul shortly after, which put the Vandals’ last four minutes in jeopardy.
Eastern hit a three to get them to a 63-60 lead with 2:38 left, and they didn’t look back. After a miss by Moffitt, Jones went over the back of the defender to attempt the put-back and picked up his fifth personal foul, disqualifying him from playing in the final two minutes and sixteen seconds.
With Jones out, the Eagles scored four more points to put them up 67-61. Moffitt made two free throws and a layup to cut the lead to 67-64 with 41 seconds left. In crunch time, the Eagles turned the ball over, Salih picked it up and Idaho head coach Zac Claus was screaming for a timeout. Despite a referee being right next to Claus, and Idaho having two timeouts, no timeout was granted.
In an attempt to tie the game up, and ease sideline tensions, Moffitt put up a three from the corner. The ball fell short, Idaho was forced to foul, and Claus got hot. He was assessed his first technical foul of the season, and the Eagles now had four shots at the free-throw line.
“We asked for a timeout, and it wasn’t given,” Claus said. “I asked why it wasn’t, and I was teed up.”
Out of the four free throws the Eagles attempted, they made two. The Vandals were next up to the line after Moffitt was fouled on a fastbreak, but it was too little too late. The Eagles closed out the Vandals, winning 73-66 to extend their win streak to 15 games and stay undefeated in conference play.
Eastern was much more efficient in the second half. They shot 13/28 from the field, 5/11 from three and 11/21 from the free-throw line. In total, the Eagles went 23/59 from the field, 8/27 from beyond the arc and an awful 19/31 from the line.
Davis led the Eagles in the second half with 12 points while Price led the Eagles overall with 16. Price was outstanding shooting the ball as he was 5/7 from the field, 3/4 from three and was 3/6 from the line. Venters added 13 points, going 5/12 from the field, 2/7 from three and 1/2 from the free-throw line.
The Vandals were not as efficient in the second half as they went 10/28 from the field, a woeful 2/16 from three and 14/15 from the line. In total, Idaho went 21/56 from the field, 4/25 from three and an outstanding 20/22 from the line. They were led by Jones with 18 points. He went 7/14 from the field, 4/4 from the line and grabbed nine rebounds. Moffitt added 14 points, shooting 4/12 from the field, 0/6 from three and 6/7 from the free-throw line.
Despite some offensive struggles, Claus was pleased with the defensive effort from his team.
“To play the best team in the league from an offensive standpoint, our guys had to be locked in,” he said. “They did a tremendous job in terms of defending all over the place. Our defense gave us a chance in this game.”
With the struggles Idaho has had late in the season, making a run in the Big Sky Conference Tournament seems out of reach for the Vandals, but all hope is not lost.
“(We need to) continue to build on what we’re doing, we know that,” Claus said. “We haven’t put together what we would call a complete 40-minute game just yet.”
This loss drops Idaho to 9-17 overall and 3-10 in conference play. The Vandals will look to redeem themselves when they play at ICCU Arena on Thursday night at 6 p.m. against Northern Colorado. They will be hoping for win number ten on the season, and some momentum going into Boise at the beginning of March.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JaydenBarfuss10.