Rose Leads Vandals Into Tourney Finals

Junior point guard Reggie Rose led four Vandals in double figures with 17 points as Idaho beat Old Dominion 65-54 in the first round of the Sacramento Holiday Classic at Arco Arena.

The Vandals (5-3), who won their first regular-season tournament game since 1992, will face George Washington (5-2) in the championship game tonight at 8. The Colonials defeated Sacramento State 98-81 in the tournament’s other first-round game.

Old Dominion’s Monarchs, who went 21-12 last year and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, fell to 3-7.

Forward Mario Mullen and Joe Bunn each scored 13 points to lead Old Dominion.

Idaho led 36-20 at the half and the Monarchs could get no closer than 10 points despite the fact the Vandals hit just one field goal in the final 11:48 of the game.

“We came out and did what we had to do, rebound and play defense,” said senior guard Shawn Dirden. “They (local media) all said it would be Idaho and Sacramento State in the consolation game. It’s a big win for us.”

“We worked hard all week in practice,” said Harry Harrison. “We knew we would have our hands full. I think our rebounding was the key.”

The Vandals outrebounded the Monarchs 41-31 and Old Dominion made just 3 of 23 3-point shots.

Idaho increased its 16-point halftime lead to 50-31 with 11:48 left in the game. Old Dominion then scored six in a row to close the gap to 50-37 as Idaho went scoreless for 4 minutes. Harry Harrison hit a layup and a free throw to end the skid at the 7:08 mark and give the Vandals a 53-37 lead.

Reggie Rose led the Vandals with 14 first-half points. Old Dominion hit just 9 of 25 shots from the field in the first half for 36 percent.

The Vandals hit eight of their first 14 shots from the field and roared out to a 19-6 lead 9 minutes into the game.

“I think that was a big key is that we got off to a decent start offensively,” Vandals coach Joe Cravens said. “We had been starting so slow this year. We played with some purpose and had big time production off our bench.”

Idaho 65, Old Dominion 54

IDAHO (5-3) - Jones 0-3 0-0 0, Harrison 4-6 2-3 10, Gardner 2-6 1-2 6, Rose 5-13 5-6 17, Dirden 2-11 6-8 11, Baumann 4-8 0-0 12, Turner 2-5 1-2 5, Jackman 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 21-55 15-21 65

OLD DOMINION (3-7) - Mullen 6-12 0-1 13, Bunn 3-7 7-8 13, Hodge 4-6 0-0 8, Byers 3-7 0-0 6, Sherod 3-8 0-0 7, Bowdler 0-2 0-0 0, Dunlap 1-6 0-0 2, Samuels 0-2 0-2 0, Poag 1-4 0-0 3, Bassette 1-3 0-0 2, Youngblood 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-57 7-11 54

Halftime-Idaho 36, Old Dominion 20. 3-point goals-Idaho 8-20 (Baumann 4-6, Rose 2-6, Gardner 1-1, Dirden 1-6, Jones 0-1. Old Dominion 3-23 (Poag 1-4, Mullen 1-5, Sherod 1-5, Byers 0-2, Samuels 0-2, Bowdler 0-2, Dunlap 0-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Idaho 41 (Harrison 9). Old Dominion 31 (Mullen 9). Assists-Idaho 15 (Dirden, Jackman 3 each). Old Dominion 12 (Sherod 5). Total fouls-Idaho 14, Old Dominion 19. A-3,716.

, DataTimes