Vandals fall short in Boise, again. Broncos win 86-75.
Another game at the CenturyLink Arena in Boise, same result for the Idaho men's basketball team. The Vandals have dropped their third consecutive game against Boise State at CenuryLink Arena, and their sixth consecutive against the Broncos.
Boise State outlasted Idaho 86-75 Tuesday night in the annual neutral court clash.
Read more after the jump.
Idaho went into the locker room trailing 38-28, struggling to find consistent offense. But Connor Hill's second 3-point basket of the half at the 16:52 mark started a 12-3 run for the Vandals. Bira Seck laid it off the glass at the 13:36 mark to make it 47-46.
That's as close as Idaho would get to victory.
Igor Hadziomerovic nailed a shot from beyond the arc, assisted by Derrick Marks to kick the lead back out to 50-46. Like the logo at mid court which represented Boise's D-League basketball team, the Broncos would proceed to stampede on the Vandals by hitting 10 of their next 15 shot attempts.
Idaho scored 47 second-half points, made 11 3-point shots on 18 attempts and were paced by a career-high 31 points from senior point guard Mike Scott.
None of it mattered because Idaho couldn't get a stop.
"We just didn’t to make the plays we needed to, we didn’t compete hard enough," Idaho coach Don Verlin said. "We know how they like to drive their ball, when those two areas weren’t close, we just couldn’t make the stops we needed to make."
Boise State big man Nick Duncan had a lot to do with that. He scored eight of his 15 points in the final 10 minutes. The Broncos kept feeding him, and he kept taking advantage of Idaho's Bira Seck and Ty Egbert. He finished with 6-8 from the field.
But it was Derrick Marks finally getting into the groove of what Boise State expects out of him that even more so ultimately led the Broncos to victory. Marks drained a 3-point basket at the 10:24 mark to give the Broncos a 6-0 run and 53-46 lead. He scored 12 of his 31 points on the night after that shot to helped Boise State ice the game.
It neutralized the night Scott had scoring the ball for the Vandals.
"Mike played ridiculous. It’s too bad we couldn’t find a way to win this ball game with Mike playing that well," Verlin said. "That’s the reason he’s our captain, that’s the reason he’s our team leader. He’s off to a tremendous start."
Bira Seck chipped in with his second double-double of the season, hitting on 7-10 shots for 16 points and 10 boards. He grabbed four of those on the offensive end.
The defensive end did him in. He was outmatched when Duncan would go one-on-one on him in the post and fouled the big man once to allow him to shoot free throws.
In the end, it was like the other two games at the CenturyLink Arena. Idaho threatened, came close, but couldn't make the plays to close out in the end.
"I don’t like moral victories," Verlin said. "I don’t like Boise State. I know our fans don’t like Boise State, we have to find a way to beat these guys."
He'll have to wait until next season when the game is sure to be in Boise again. For now, Idaho will get ready to host Northern Kentucky at Memorial Gym on Nov. 29.
