Jacob Thorpe

The Vandals played their hand and came away with barely enough for the bus ride home, losing to New Mexico State 77-55 in the Western Athletic Conference championship game Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Stacey Barr had 28 points, including 11 in the final three minutes to lead Idaho over Seattle in the Western Athletic Conference tournament championship game 75-67 on Saturday and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Saturday Morning links

LAS VEGAS – With the most important game of the season on the horizon, forgive the Idaho Vandals for taking some time before focusing on the upcoming contest. After all, they just won the program’s biggest game in decades. Don Verlin’s fifth-seeded Vandals upset No. 1 seed Utah Valley 74-69 in the school’s first Western Athletic Conference semifinal appearance since 2007 to advance to the championship game of a conference tournament for the first time since 1983.

Western Athletic Conference player of the year Stacey Barr scored 35 points to lead Idaho's 75-65 victory over New Mexico State in the WAC women's tournament semifinals.

LAS VEGAS – Not every college basketball custom and ritual is good, and the Idaho Vandals couldn’t be happier about ending their annual tradition of first-round exits in the Western Athletic Conference tournament. The fifth-seeded Vandals (15-17, 7-9 WAC) knocked off fourth-seeded Kansas City 73-70 on Thursday for the school’s first conference tournament win since the 2006-07 season. It was also the first WAC quarterfinals win of coach Don Verlin’s career.

Stephen Madison scored 26 points and Sekou Wiggs 18 as No. 5 seed Idaho battled through 19 lead changes with fourth-seeded Missouri-Kansas City to claim a 73-70 victory in the Western Athletic Conference tournament Thursday night.

LAS VEGAS – In what was widely presumed to be Ken Bone’s last game as the Washington State men’s basketball coach, the Cougars nearly inverted the narrative. Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins is under a mandate to make the NCAA tournament, and a loss to WSU, No. 203 in the RPI, would likely have ended the Cardinal’s tournament hopes and Dawkins’ tenure as coach.

When the losses piled up for the Washington State Cougars in the latter half of the men’s Pac-12 season they were of little consequence.

From Las Vegas -- Washington State cornerback DaQuawn Brown was arrested Friday and booked into the Whitman County Jail on charges of felony second-degree assault and misdemeanor assault. The rising sophomore was released on Monday. Police logs indicate he was also arrested earlier this month...