UI Collapses At Southern Utah, 71-56 Vandals’ Rally In Second Half Stalls In Non-Conference Road Loss

Senior guard Reggie Ingram tied a career high by scoring 28 points as Southern Utah defeated Idaho 71-56 in non-conference men’s basketball Saturday night.

Shawn Dirden scored 13 points to lead Idaho, and Reggie Rose added 11. The Vandals fell to 3-2 while Southern Utah improved to 2-3.

“We didn’t play very well offensively or defensively,” said Vandals coach Joe Cravens. “All the things that we showed against Washington (in a 64-61 UI win) that made me feel so good were not there tonight. We cut it to five and they would hit a basket and we would collectively drop our heads.”

Idaho failed to take advantage of a size advantage as Nate Gardner, Harry Harrison and Jason Jackman each picked up his fourth foul midway through the second half. They combined for just 17 points.

The Vandals suffered through two crucial scoring droughts, a 5-minute period without a field goal in the first half that gave Southern Utah the lead and a 3-1/2-minute scoreless period late in the game that prevented a comeback.

The Vandals trailed 43-31 at the break, but went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 50-45 with 10:42 left in the game. Jackman and Harrison then picked up their fourth fouls a minute apart, and Southern pushed its lead to 57-47.

Idaho cut it to 61-54 with 4:31 left, but Ingram hit a 3-pointer with 3:31 left and a pair of free throws with 2:11 remaining to put the game out of reach at 67-54.

Idaho did not score from the 4:31 mark until there were 56 seconds left in the contest.

Idaho has never won at Southern Utah in four trips and has lost its last four non-conference road games dating to last year.

Southern Utah home record in the 10-year-old Centrum is 116-16.

The Vandals suffered through another abysmal start and trailed the Thunderbirds 42-31 at halftime. Idaho has yet to shoot better than 47 percent from the field in the first half this season, and that trend continued on Saturday as they made just 10 of 27 shots for 37 percent.

Jackman came off the bench to hit a short jumper at the 13:01 mark to give Idaho an 11-8 lead. The Vandals then went the next 5 minutes without hitting a field goal as Southern Utah went on a 13-2 run. Rose’s layup with 8:03 left in the first half broke the dry spell.

As the half wound down, Dirden’s 3-point try was rejected by Ingram, leading to Brad Bodily’s layup at the buzzer.

“This is a tough place to play, but I thought we would step up to the plate and take it down to the wire,” said Cravens. “I kind of expected that somebody would be in foul trouble. That’s just the way it is. We didn’t play good enough to win this game. I was just disappointed in our toughness.”

Southern Utah’s Ingram scored 12 points and forward Jon Gaines added 11 in the first half. Dirden, Idaho’s leading scorer on the season, was held scoreless until he hit a pair of 3-pointers in the half’s last 4 minutes.

Harrison, Idaho’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder, had just one point, two rebounds and played only 11 minutes as he picked up three first-half fouls. Harrison didn’t make his first field goal of the game until the 11:50 mark of the second half.

The 42 first-half points were the most given up by Idaho this season. The Vandals came into the game giving up an average of just 68 points per game.

Southern Utah hit 65 percent of its shots from the field for the game and 5 of 10 3-point attempts.

S. Utah 71, Idaho 56

Boise 81, Nevada 76

At Boise, guard Joe Wyatt scored 20 points, including four three-point field goals and the Broncos of the Big Sky withstood a furious Wolf Pack comeback bid in a non-conference game.

The Broncos (2-3) held a 74-64 lead with 1:47 remaining and held on for the win despite a flurry of points by the Wolf Pack in the colsing seconds. Nevada (2-1) scored seven straight points in a 25 second span on a free throw and a 3-point basket by Richard Brown and another 3-pointer by Damien Edwards, cutting their deficit to 74-71.

After Boise State’s Shane Flanagan scored two free throws, Nevada sliced the deficit to 76-73 on a layup by Tim Barnett with 38 seconds left. But a three-point play by Bronco forward J.D. Huleen increased Boise State’s lead to 79-73 with 25 seconds so play and the Broncos survived one more 3-pointer by Barnett with free throws by Wyatt and forward Phil Rodman in th eclosing seconds.

Barnett lead the Wolf Pack with 21 points, Brian Green added 16, Brown had 15 and Edwards 11. Flanagan and Mike Tolman scored 13 each for Boise State.

Wis.-Green Bay 73, Idaho St. 56

The Phoenix improved to 3-2 record with a non-league victory over the visiting Bengals (3-2) of the Big Sky.

, DataTimes