A Wednesday afternoon power outage on the west side of campus forced the Vandals’ game against Northern Colorado down to Lewiston. That 30-minute drive did not phase the Vandals, as they would get an 84-82 victory over the red-hot Northern Colorado Bears.
Coming into the game, the Bears were 10-17 overall and 5-10 in conference play. However, the Bears had won their last three games coming into Thursday’s matchup.
The Bears started the game off with three points as senior guard Daylen Kountz got on the board first for the Bears. Vandal forward/center Isaac Jones followed Kountz’s shot with a dunk to cut the Bears’ lead to 3-2.
Kountz scored the next eight points for the Bears as Northern Colorado jumped out to an 11-6 lead. Fifth year guard Divant’e Moffitt answered for the Vandals and got it to a 13-10 game. Another jumper by Moffitt cut the game to one, the Bears, however, went on an 8-2 run to push the lead to 21-15.
The Vandals could not find any offense and the Bears could not miss as they opened up a 26-17 lead on the Vandals. Idaho finally got some offense and closed the gap to 31-27 with 1:35 left in the first half. Despite the Vandals’ late push, the Bears were too much for the Vandals in the first half as they took a 36-32 lead into halftime.
Northern Colorado shot 14/29 from the field, 7/15 from three and 1/2 from the line in the first half. Senior guard Dalton Knecht led the Bears with 12 points. The Vandals shot a similar percentage to the Bears, shooting 14/30 for the field, 3/8 from three and a perfect 1/1 from the free-throw line. Moffitt led the Vandals with 16 in the first half.
The second half began the same as the first. The Bears extended their lead to 40-32 before Jones finally got the Vandals back on the board. Moffitt followed Jones’ layup with a three to cut the lead to 40-37. The game then went back-and-forth for a while until Northern Colorado pushed their lead to 56-48 with 12:04 remaining.
Moffitt scored the next four points to cut the lead to 56-52. The Bears answered with four more points, and the Vandals were back down 60-52. Moffitt would once again score four-straight points and keep the Vandals in the game.
The Bears kept answering all of Idaho’s possessions, pushing the lead to 68-59. Freshman forward Nigel Burris hit a three for the Vandals to start cutting into the Bears’ lead once again. Sophomore guard Dominique Ford followed with a three of his own to cut the UNC lead to 69-65 with just under six minutes to go.
After hitting one three, Burris added two more, and the once nine-point Bears lead was cut to one at 69-68. Knecht finally stopped the bleeding with a layup to put the Bears back up three. The Bears were up 72-70 when Burris went to the line to shoot two free throws. He hit both to tie the game at 72 with 2:36 left in the game.
A miss on the other end by the Bears, and a jumper by Moffitt, gave the Vandals their first lead of the ball game at 74-72. The lead did not last long as the Bears would make a three pointer to go up 75-74. Jones, for the second game in a row, had a monster dunk to excite the crowd and gave the Vandals a one-point lead again.
The Vandals’ defense finally got a stop, and Moffitt gave the Vandals some breathing room with a three-point lead.
After a Bears layup, senior guard Rashad Smith made two more free throws to keep the Vandals lead at three. Northern would score two more free throws before Moffitt closed the Bears out with two of his own, giving the Vandals an 84-82 victory.
The teams combined for 98 points in the second half with Idaho outscoring Northern Colorado 52-46. The Bears were more effective shooting from the field in the second half as they shot 16/30 overall. However, their three-point shooting was not as effective as they only went 2/9. Despite shooting poorly from beyond the arc, they made up for it by going 12/15 from the free-throw line.
The Vandals second half shooting was similar to the first. They were 15/31 from the field, 4/11 from three and 18/20 from the line.
The Bears were led by Kountz and Knecht, who combined for 48 points. Kountz had 26 points, shooting 9/13 from the field, 2/3 from three and 6/7 from the line. Knecht was just as good with 22 points, going 9/18 from the field, 2/7 from three and 2/2 from the line.
The Vandals were led by a three-headed attack. Moffitt finished with a career-high 35 points, shooting 12/24 from the field, 2/4 from three and a perfect 9/9 from the free-throw line. Jones finished with 21 points,15 of which came in the second half. He also pulled down 8 rebounds, shot 8/11 from the field and hit 5/6 free-throw attempts. Burris added 18 points, 13 in the second half, shot 6/9 from the field, 3/4 from three and 3/3 from the line.
The Vandals have been on the losing end of some close games this season, so this win was huge for the team.
“(I’m) thrilled for our guys, for the resiliency they have shown,” head coach Zac Claus said.
Moffitt had a career-high 35 points, but he credited his teammates for his success in the game.
“My teammates, they helped me a lot tonight,” he said.
The Vandals reached double-digit wins for the first time since 2017 as they move to 10-17 with 4-10. After their game against Northern Arizona Saturday afternoon, Idaho will hit the road to take on Idaho State at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JaydenBarfuss10.