Vandals point fingers after disappointing loss

MOSCOW – The unraveling of the University of Idaho men’s basketball team intensified Saturday as the Vandals lost to a Long Beach State team that hadn’t won a road game all season.

After the dreary 71-58 setback in front of 1,349 at Memorial Gym, senior forwards Dandrick Jones and Anton Lyons openly questioned the heart and effort of some of their teammates.

Head coach Leonard Perry refuted the players’ assertions and redirected the blame at every member of the team, beginning with himself.

All this on Senior Night.

“We’ve got 12 guys on the team, I think four guys have hearts like a lion,” Jones said. “Everyone else, I don’t know. I give every game my all. I try to get guys going, but you can only do so much.”

Said Lyons, who was upbeat in an interview earlier this week: “There’s only about four of us, everybody else seems like they done gave up. It’s pretty much the seniors, (junior Tanoris) “Shep” (Shepard) and (freshman) Jerod (Haynes). It’s too late to be giving up.”

In Perry’s eyes, it’s way too late to be making excuses.

“I’m not sure what the players’ comments were, but if it had anything to do with an excuse, that’s just frustration, that’s what it is,” Perry said. “I’m just not big on excuses. Yeah, fatigue is part of it, it’s part of everything. You guys get tired of writing and deadlines, but you do it. We’re either getting it done or we’re not getting it done.”

The Vandals (8-20, 6-11 Big West) have dropped four straight at home, six straight overall and have seen a 5-2 conference start disintegrate over the last month. It appears their early burst will be enough to get a top-eight spot necessary to make the Big West Tournament, but team confidence, morale and momentum seems to have flat-lined.

Idaho, which closes the regular season at Utah State on Friday, will make the tournament with a victory or a UC Riverside (9-17, 4-12) loss to either Cal State Northridge or Big West champion Pacific.

Long Beach State, 0-13 on the road prior to Saturday, dramatically improved its chances of making the tourney. The 49ers (8-19, 5-11) return home to face last-place Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara. The 49ers started Idaho’s slide with a 53-52 win over the Vandals a month ago.

“It’s sad they got their first road win on us and their first victory in league against us,” said Lyons, who had 11 points in the first four minutes and finished with 20. “It’s embarrassing and it hurts to go out with a loss at home in front of our fans.”

Jones said Idaho hasn’t been the same since it lost at Long Beach State.

“Defense and rebounding,” Jones said, “that’s what got us fourth in the conference last year. It’s what started us in the top three in conference this year. Lately we haven’t been playing defense and rebounding. It goes back to practice. Everybody doesn’t want to go hard in practice. I think it’s caught up to us.”

Asked how long that’s been the case, Jones said, “guys have been dreading practice all year, but when you’re winning it’s easy to come to practice. What young guys and other guys have to realize is you’ve got to come to practice whether you’re winning or losing.”

Yet, it’s fair to point out that Jones and Lyons were held out of the starting lineup Thursday against UC Irvine. Jones said it was for “discipline” reasons. Lyons missed a treatment session with the trainers.

On Saturday, Idaho’s defense, including Lyons and Jones, who played 37 and 36, minutes, respectively, did little to slow the 49ers, who made 54 percent from the floor in the first half. When the 49ers’ shooting cooled in the second half, they grabbed 11 offensive rebounds en route to a 41-31 edge overall.

Long Beach St. 71, Idaho 58

Long Beach State (8-19, 5-11)–Ibekwe 3-5 2-6 8, Hodges 3-10 4-4 12, Hawkins 3-13 3-4 10, Pearson 2-2 1-2 5, Houston 4-8 5-5 13, Darby 1-1 0-0 3, Kindred 1-1 0-0 2, Coleman 4-7 3-4 12, Byrd 1-3 0-0 2, Jenkins 1-5 2-2 4. Totals 23-55 20-27 71.

Idaho (8-20, 6-11)–Jones 4-12 3-9 11, Shepard 5-11 0-0 11, Lyons 9-13 2-6 20, Davis 2-5 2-3 6, Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Haynes 1-3 2-2 5, Higdon 2-5 0-0 5, Bowden-Key 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Kale 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 23-52 9-22 58.

Halftime–Long Beach State 36, Idaho 27. 3-point goals–Long Beach State 5-11 (Hodges 2-4, Darby 1-1, Coleman 1-2, Hawkins 1-4), Idaho 3-12 (Haynes 1-2, Shephard 1-3, Hidgon 1-3, Lyons 0-1, Bowden-Key 0-1, Jones 0-2). Fouled out–Lyons. Rebounds–Long Beach State 41 (Coleman 9), Idaho 31 (Jones, Lyons 7). Assists–Long Beach State 14 (Houston 7), Idaho 9 (Haynes 3). Total fouls–Long Beach State 20, Idaho 19. A–1,349.