Idaho Handles Zone, Defeats St. Martin’s

Area men

The zone offense is generally the last added to the playbook, noted Idaho men’s basketball coach Joe Cravens.

But the third-year Vandals coach didn’t take any chances in preparing for Saturday night’s season opener against St. Martin’s.

“I think they zoned us all but two possessions of the game,” Cravens said following the Vandals’ 86-63 victory over the Saints.

“We expected that (zone). This is a real good game for us early in the year. It’s very hard to work on your zone offense in practice. One thing coaches do worse than play a zone is attack a zone.”

It was Idaho’s 15th straight win at Memorial Gym before a sparse crowd of 900, as well as its 11th straight successful season debut.

“I thought we played well defensively with the zone,” said St. Martin’s coach Bob Grisham. “We didn’t execute very well offensively.”

The Saints shot 39 percent from the field, compared to 54 percent for the Vandals, who shot 41 percent in the first half.

Idaho took the lead for keeps 14:56 before halftime, after guard Reggie Rose hit a 3-point field goal from the side to make it 12-9.

The Vandals led by as many as 13 in the last 6 minutes of the first half, and led 37-26 at halftime.

But it wasn’t until the final 11 minutes that the Vandals could shake the scrappy Saints, an NAIA team from Lacey, Wash.

Idaho committed five of its 20 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the second half, fueling an 11-3 run by St. Martin’s.

A 3-pointer by junior guard Elon Randolph pulled the Saints within 43-37 with 14:47 left.

The Vandals responded with a 20-6 run, including seven points from junior center Nate Gardner, whose two free throws made it 63-43 at 9:22.

Idaho 86, St. Martin’s 63

ST. MARTIN’S

Borchardt 5-11 1-1 13, Thomas 3- 10 0-0 6, Beatty 1-4 0-0 3, Hunter 4-8 1 -2 9, Schutz 2-6 0-0 4, Malloy 2-4 0-0 5, Wilson 2-4 0-0 5, Taylor 0-4 0-0 0, Schreck 1-3 0-0 2, Graham 1-1 2-2 4, Randolph 3-7 4-4 12. Totals 24-62 8-9 63.

IDAHO

Jones 3-5 0-0 6, Jackman 6-11 2- 3 14, Gardner 5-13 3-3 13, Rose 6-13 0-0 13, Dirden 8-14 1-1 21, Baumann 2-3 0-0 6, Thomas 1-1 0-0 2, Turner 1-5 2-2 5, Magnussen 2-2 0-2 4, Thomas 1-1 0-0 2, Burnette 0-0 0-0, Larson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 35-68 8-11 86.

Halftime-Idaho 37, St. Martin’s 26. 3-point field goals- Martin’s 8-23 ( Randloph 2-4, Borchardt 2-5), Idaho 8-19 (Dirden 4-9, Baumann 2-3). Total fouls-Martin’s 15, Idaho 7. Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Martin’s 30 ( Borchardt, Thomas 6), Idaho 42 (Jackman 11, Gardner 8). Assists-Martin’s 13 ( Hunter 4), Idaho 21 (Turner 6, Rose 4). Att-914.

CCS 81, Bellevue 74

At Spokane Falls CC, Mark Hegbloom tossed 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Community Colleges of Spokane came away with a non-conference victory.

Kyle York and Jed Palmer each added 18 points for CCS (1-1), which jumped to a 44-28 halftime lead. Palmer also had 12 rebounds.

CC SPOKANE

Hegbloom 10-19 2-3 22, York 5-10 7-9 18, Palmer 7-14 4-5 18, Ferrante 1-6 6-6 9, Moffatt 1-4 2-3 5, Raiford 2-2 0-0 4, Gehring 1-2 1-2 3, Schug 0-0 2-2 2, Andrew 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 24-30 81.

BELLEVUE CC

Washington 9-17 3-4 21, Lippert 5-13 2-2 14, Billings 4-12 0-0 11, Lauren 3-7 5-7 11, Morse 3-9 2-2 10, Potts 1-4 2-2 4, Rhodes 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 26-65 14-17 74.

Halftime score - CCS 44, BCC 28.

3-point goals - CCS 3-5 (York 1-2, Ferrante 1-1, Moffatt 1-2), BCC 8-22 (Washington 0-1, Lippert 2-5, Billings 3-8, Lauren 0-1, Morse 2-5, Potts 0-1, Rhodes 1-1). Total fouls - CCS 18, BCC 24. Fouled out - Lippert. Rebounds - CCS 45 (Hebloom 13), BCC 9 (Washington 3). Assists - CCS 15 (York 5), BCC 8 (Potts 4).