Vandals fend off Jackrabbits in overtime
MOSCOW, Idaho – When Pat Ingram says he couldn’t “shoot nothing” last year, he’s not kidding. The Idaho guard attempted one 3-pointer in 2015-2016 … and missed it.
So it wasn’t surprising to see him flash a quick smile after his third straight 3 to start Monday night’s game. And it made sense – especially given the circumstances – for him to chest-bump Victor Sanders and pump up the crowd after his fourth and fifth long-range makes came in a 26-second span in the second half.
For much of the night, all of Ingram’s shots were falling. And the Vandals needed every one of them against a game South Dakota State club.
Propelled by a career-best 23 points for Ingram and 29 points from Sanders, the Vandals bested the Jackrabbits 96-89 in overtime in front of a Thanksgiving week crowd of 474 at Memorial Gym.
“He did what he had to do to help the team win, and that’s what we need,” Sanders said of Ingram, who spelled him off the bench early in the game. “In order for us to go deep in the tournament, we have to be deep and be able to rely on people off the bench.”
Idaho (3-1) pocketed its second straight win over a 2015 NCAA tournament participant after prevailing at Little Rock on Friday night. Both victories came without starting point guard Perrion Callendret, who will have an MRI on an his injured right knee this morning.
UI coach Don Verlin said he hopes Callendret, a senior and the team’s second-leading scorer last year, won’t miss much more time.
Sanders filled in nicely at point guard down the stretch, going 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the last 23.4 seconds to seal the win.
The Vandals went up 78-75 on two Sanders free throws with 12.1 seconds left in regulation. South Dakota State’s Tevin King missed a 3, but the long rebound went to Mike Daum, who found A.J. Hess in the corner. Hess sank a deep, off-balance 3 at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
Verlin said the plan was to foul SDSU under 8 seconds left, but Hess came up clutch –like he had at the end of several earlier possessions – as part of a 31-point night.
UI scored the first six points of the extra period and did enough to fend off the Jackrabbits in the closing minute.
“I give my guys a lot of credit,” Verlin said. “They bounced back in overtime. It was really easy at that point to let a big shot change the whole complexion of the game.”
The Vandals hit 14 3-pointers, tied for the most against a Division I team in Verlin’s nine years, and shot 52 percent from the field. Ingram went 5 of 6 from 3, Chad Sherwood made all of four of his 3-point attempts and Sanders was 4 of 10 from deep.
SDSU (1-4) was even more productive from 3 – it knocked down 16 triples, with 11 coming from Hess and Reed Tellinghuisen.
Six minutes in, it looked like the Vandals would struggle to manufacture points. They trailed 11-4 and South Dakota State already had three 3s.
But Sanders erupted for seven quick points of his own, and UI weathered another Jackrabbits run with big contributions off its bench. Ingram and Sherwood hit back-to-back 3s as part of an 8-0 run.
It was the start of a back-and-forth contest, one that could be replicated on Dec. 10 when Idaho plays at South Dakota State to finish the home-and-home series.