The Vandals traveled to Greeley, Colorado, to face off against the Northern Colorado Bears in their matchup on Saturday. Idaho was looking to start a late season win streak after their 83-78 win against Northern Arizona on Thursday. In a game that was back and forth in the first, the Vandals shot themselves out of the game, losing 92-74.
Idaho and UNC both played a phenomenal first half, with Idaho shooting 61.3% and an astounding 6-7 from three. The Bears’ performance was even more impressive, shooting 73.1% percent.
The Vandals held the lead for the majority of the first half, with UNC’s first lead of the game being when they scored late in the first to take the lead 45-43. Quickly, a Vandal first-half lead turned into trailing 48-47 going into the locker room for halftime.
Coming into the second half, the Bears came out scorching hot and took advantage of Vandals’ slow start. Within the first five minutes, Northern Colorado was up by double digits. UNC was led by Isaiah Hawthorne and Langston Reynolds, who scored 25 points and 21 points on excellent efficiency.
Idaho saw their field goal percentage plummet in the second half as the team shot 10-27 and 1-9 from three. Another issue that plagued the Vandals was their inability to finish on shots off assists: The team finished with only five assists on the day, compared to Northern Colorado’s 17.
Despite the team’s struggles in the second, junior forward Tyler Linhardt had himself an impressive game off the bench, scoring 23 points on 9-14 shooting in 24 minutes of play. This was Linhardt’s second consecutive game scoring over 20, scoring 25 against Northern Arizona on Thursday.
The struggles that the Vandals faced in the second were too big to handle and Northern Colorado kept increasing their lead, Idaho ultimately losing 92-74.
Idaho falls to 12-16 on the season and 7-8 in the conference. The Vandals look to bounce back from the loss when they play their third-to-final game of the 2024-2025 regular season against Idaho State on Feb. 27. The in-state rival Vandals and Bengals face off at 6 p.m. in the ICCU Arena.
Bryce Norwood can be reached at arg-sports@uidaho.edu