Vandals cash in despite long-range woes
MOSCOW, Idaho – After trekking 2,700 miles from Orangeburg, S.C., back to the Palouse, Idaho apparently needs more than a week to correct its outside shooting woes. The Vandals left the Kibbie Dome Wednesday still searching for their once-sizzling 3-point stroke.
Not that it mattered this time.
The Vandals men parlayed another balanced scoring effort and much-improved rebounding into an 81-68 basketball win to cap a home-and-home series with South Carolina State.
Last week, Idaho went 3 for 28 (10.7 percent) from long range in a 66-59 loss to the Bulldogs of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. While it didn’t take long to match that output Wednesday, the Vandals ended up 5 for 17 from beyond the arc.
“Our guys got to shoot,” UI coach Don Verlin said. “That’s our offense, and they’ve got to step back and knock it in. And they will. Sometimes you just go on a little bit of a bad streak.”
Idaho (5-5) pulled away with superb free-throw shooting down the stretch.
The Vandals host Texas Southern and Washington State this weekend. Sunday’s tussle with the Cougars surely will hold special meaning to Mac Hopson, a WSU transfer who continues to excel in his first year in Moscow. The smooth point guard put in a game-high 18 points and handed out six assists.
His steady performance was backed up by four other Vandals who reached double figures. Kashif Watson (15 points), Brandon Wiley (13), Marvin Jefferson (12) and Luciana de Souza (11) all carried the club at times.
“We were a little more focused,” Wiley said. “Coach had us going harder in practice. He said our concentration wasn’t too good, so we had to really refocus on what they did and came out and played better.”
The Bulldogs (5-5) hauled in 20 offensive rebounds last week against UI, but managed only eight in the second matchup. Part of the glaring difference can be credited to Wiley, a 6-foot-6 forward who led banged-up Idaho with nine boards.
“(I’ve) been really impressed with his play,” Verlin said of Wiley. “He’s an undersized post, but he works like crazy to get those rebounds. He did a good job tonight.”
The new-look Vandals, without guard Brandon Brown (thumb) and post Luis Augusto (foot), took advantage of 20 turnovers from SCSU and grabbed control in the last 10 minutes. Watson’s baseline jumper finished a 9-0 spurt and put the Vandals up 59-46.
UI then closed the game by knocking down 12 of 14 attempts from the free-throw line.
Notes
Idaho has hashed out five wins in a 10-game stretch for the first time since 1999-2000. … The announced attendance was 946 in the sparsely filled Dome.