As the temperature dropped into the negatives, 2,256 brave souls gathered inside the ICCU Arena to watch the Idaho Vandals take on the Eastern Washington Eagles. The Vandals, coming off a 75-67 disappointing loss to St Thomas last time out, wanted to get back on track and end their losing streak.
Behind a solid second half, the Eagles pulled away from the Vandals and defeated Idaho 79-58, extending the Vandals’ losing streak to three games. With the ICCU Arena roaring, both teams came out of the gates swinging.
Junior guard Casey Jones started the scoring with a jumper, putting the Eagles up early. Both teams went back and forth, and the Vandals were finally able to overtake the Eagles in the game with just over seven minutes played.
Both teams continued to go back and forth, but the Eagles got the last laugh of the first half. Freshman guard Mason Williams hit a three-pointer at the end of the half to push the Eagle’s first-half lead to 31-27.
Eastern was efficient on the offensive end in the first half, finishing 13-for-28 from the field, an underwhelming 2-for-9 from the three-point line, and 3-for-3 from the free-throw line. The Vandals were less than impressive on the offensive end, finishing the half 8-for-34 from the field, 5-for-18 from three, and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line.
In the first half, Idaho held one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams to just two three-pointers. The Vandals looked to continue that in the second half. Eastern would ruin those plans as they would jump out on the Vandals early, going on an 11-5 run, pushing the lead to 42-32 in just under five minutes played in the second half.
The Vandals responded with a 7-0 run to cut the game to 42-39. The Vandals, fighting to stay in the game, pushed overly hard and paid for it. Redshirt freshman Tyler Linhardt went to contest the three-point shot by Eastern but ran over the screener and drew a foul. Junior center Dane Erikstrup would make the three-pointer and redshirt freshman LeJuan Watts headed to the free-throw line for two more.
After Watts made the free throw, the five-point possession took the energy out of the arena and made the deficit too much to come back from. Behind poor free throw shooting and poor defense in the second half, the Eagles ran away with a 79-58 to improve to 3-0 in conference play.
With the loss, the Vandals fell to 1-2 in conference play and extended their losing streak to three games. In the postgame press conference, junior guard Quinn Denker spoke about the game. “This is a game where you go back and watch the film right after and learn what mistakes were made.”
Denker continued, “we were in that game, once again in the beginning of the second half, we didn’t come out strong. We know what we need to fix, and we’ll make those adjustments.”
Denker was one of the only bright spots for the Vandals offensively as he led all scorers with 16 points. Junior forward Juice Mims helped Denker by providing 13 points and five rebounds.
The Eagles spread the wealth around with five guys in double figures, led by Jones, who had 14 points. Head Coach Alex Pribble postgame talked about his thoughts on the performance, “I think the first half we came out of the gates, defended well and gave ourselves a chance despite not shooting the ball particularly well.”
He continued, “but good teams like that, you have to be consistent for 40 minutes. I think we played 20, but the wheels fell off a little bit in the second half.”
When asked about the shooting struggles, Pribble did not seem too worried. “If shooting the ball is our biggest concern right now, I’m ok with that. There’s really only one recipe. You just got to get in the gym and get better.”
The Vandals will look to end their losing streak as they travel down to Pocatello to face in-state rival Idaho State. The Vandals will tip off with the Bengals on Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. in the first step to bringing the King Spud trophy back to Moscow.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected] or on X @JaydenBarfuss10