Vandals Move Inside For First Big Sky Win

Eastern Washington kept threatening, but a look at Idaho’s shot chart best explains the Vandals’ 73-62 men’s basketball win Saturday night.

Guard Shawn Dirden made Idaho’s longest shot of the second half - a 6-footer from the baseline.

Otherwise, it was layup after rebound conversion after short bank shot for the Vandals, now 1-2 in the Big Sky Conference.

EWU, which has lost 24 straight in the Sky and 19 in a row to UI, slipped to 0-3 and 3-11 overall.

“We got the ball where we wanted to,” said UI coach Joe Cravens, whose 7-8 team visits Weber State on Thursday and Northern Arizona on Saturday.

UI was able to feed post players Harry Harrison and Nate Gardner. Guards Dirden, Mark Leslie and Ben Johnson either drove around EWU defenders in half-court sets or singed the Eagles in transition. The Vandals had 20 fastbreak points to EWU’s 4.

It’s not entirely easy to describe how the Eagles stayed in this game. EWU was outshot from the field (52 to 41 percent) and free-throw line (74 to 67 percent), and outboarded 38-31.

But the Eagles were persistent and rallied from a 44-28 deficit to make Idaho and the mostly partisan 2,360 in attendance at the Kibbie Dome squirm in the final minutes.

EWU’s Curtis Porter and Carl Crider hit consecutive buckets to close the gap to 51-43 with 7 minutes left.

After a UI timeout, Harrison got loose for two layups.

Crider canned a 3-pointer at the 2-minute mark to trim the deficit to 61-56.

Idaho answered when Johnson caught EWU’s defense napping for a layup.

Gardner was fouled - in the lane, of course - and hit two free throws to start a streak of eight straight connections from the line as UI pulled away.

“It was one of those things where we really needed to bear down defensively,” EWU coach John Wade said. “Sometimes we played good enough defense, but we didn’t finish it off with the rebound.”

Harrison did finish. In another sterling effort, he piled up 19 boards and 15 points. Leslie, whose three first-half 3-pointers comprised nearly the extent of the Vandals’ successful jump shooting, had 20 points, and Dirden operated well in the paint and on the break to score 18.

“I felt we were in control most of the night but we couldn’t put them away,” Cravens said. “You have to give them some credit for competing and continuing to play hard.

“We’d be up 15 and then miss a couple and it was down to eight or nine again.”

Symbolic of Harrison’s glass work was his contribution to a series that amounted to a five-point play.

Gardner scored and was fouled, but missed the free throw. Harrison pulled the rebound away from two Eagles and scored while being hacked. He hit the free throw to put UI on top 28-18 late in the first half.

Four Eagles reached double figures, led by Curtis Porter’s 15 points, 11 in the second half. Crider scored eight of his 11 in final 20 minutes. Melvin Lewis had 14 and Kevin Groves 13.

“We needed to move the ball more,” said Wade, whose club had a 5-minute, 30-second scoring drought in the first half. “We can’t get into a one-pass, one-shot routine.”

EWU forward Joshua Lewis, who had a string of six straight games in double figures snapped in Thursday’s loss to Sac State, didn’t play. Wade wouldn’t disclose the reason why.

The Eagles are at Northern Arizona on Thursday and Weber State on Saturday.

Idaho 73, E. Washington 62

EASTERN WASHINGTON (3-11)

Groves 3-9 7-8 13, Porter 7-14 0-0 15, Lewis 6-8 2-4 14, Rideout 1-11 2-4 4, Crider 4-5 0-0 11, Dean 0-1 0-0 0, Thomson 2-3 1-2 5, Stinnett 0-5 0-0 0 Totals 23-56 12-18 62.

IDAHO (7-8)

Dirden 7-13 4-5 18, Harrison 7-12 1-3 15, Gardner 4-6 2-3 10, Johnson 3-7 0-0 6, Leslie 6-12 5-5 20, Spike 0-2 2-2 2, Coates 1-1 0-1 2, Jones 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-54 14-19 73.

Halftime-Idaho 33, E. Washington 26. 3-Point goals-E. Washington 4-6 (Crider 3-4, Porter 1-1, Stinnett 0-1), Idaho 3-11 (Leslie 3-4, Dirden 0-4, Johnson 0-2, Spike 0-1). Fouled out- Crider. Rebounds-E. Washington 31 (Lewis 8), Idaho 38 (Harrison 19). Assists-E. Washington 6 (Porter 3), Idaho 14 (Leslie 4, Dirden 4). Total fouls-E. Washington 20, Idaho 16. A-2,360.