Vandals drop a close one

MOSCOW, Idaho – The University of Idaho men’s basketball team lost its ninth straight game Saturday night, despite 27 points from guard Keoni Watson.

The 81-76 setback against UC Riverside dropped the Vandals record to 3-23, their worst start in team history.

Watson scored 12 points over the games final 4:12 to keep the Vandals close, but poor rebounding and a lack of energy proved too much to overcome for Idaho

“A lot of what took place here tonight is just grit,” Idaho coach George Pfeifer said. “We had timeouts where we were talking about effort and toughness. I mean this is not a good rebounding team and they outrebounded us.”

Freshman David Jackson led the team with nine rebounds while Darin Nagle chipped in with five rebounds and three blocked shots.

Nagle moved into Idaho’s top 10 for single-season blocked shots, joining Riley Smith (1989-90) and Raymond Brown (1987-88) in eighth place with 36 blocks, but it was not enough to overcome the 42-37 rebounding deficit.

“I will give you a defining moment. We had one offensive rebound at halftime,” Pfeifer said. “This isn’t a good rebounding team but we have one offensive rebound, and it’s not like we shot 75 percent.”

In fact, Idaho shot just 39 percent for the game, in large part due to missed opportunities in every facet of the team’s performance.

“We missed some scoring opportunities early on, we had defensive rebounds where no one is around and we can’t grab them. We have breakaway lay-up situations we can’t convert and the follow ups we don’t get,” Pfeifer said. “We had missed dunks, we had one-footers we didn’t make, and we had wide open threes and wide-open jump shots we didn’t make.”

Watson led Idaho with three 3-pointers, and the team’s six 3-point shots set the school record for single-season 3-point field goals made with 193. The previous record was 190 set during the 1998-99 season.

But overall the team shot just 6-19 from beyond the arc and the Vandals’ 22-32 performance from the free-throw line further ruined any chance of a victory.

Still, Pfeifer continued to harp on the team’s lack of energy, especially at the start of the game.

“I thought early on we were flat, we didn’t play with a lot of energy,” Pfeifer said. “When you play a game like this, both teams are having bad seasons, this is an opportunity for you to come out and play with some energy and maybe put them back on their heels. We didn’t do that certainly.”

For the Highlanders, freshman Henrik Thomsen led the team with 21 points while Justin Bell and Larry Cunningham scored 19 and 18 respectively.

The three combined to go 20-41 for the game with seven 3-pointers.

It was the first road victory of the season for UC Riverside and the win moved the team to 6-20.

Next up for Idaho is a matchup against No. 10 Nevada Thursday night in Moscow.

UC Riverside 81, Idaho 76

UC Riverside (6-20)—Bell 6-13 3-4 19, Bates 1-4 2-2 4, Thomsen 9-14 0-0 21, L.Cunningham 5-14 8-9 18, Soto 2-5 4-6 8, Johnson 3-10 3-4 9, Jim-George 0-0 1-2 1, Creppy 0-0 0-0 0, Ennis 0-0 0-0 0, Anderson 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 26-60 22-29 81.

Idaho (3-23)—Watson 9-16 6-7 27, Avworo 1-4 2-4 4, Nagle 5-12 2-4 13, Webb 1-4 0-0 2, Jackson 3-8 7-12 13, C.Johnson 1-2 0-0 2, Crowell 1-5 0-0 2, Morris 2-6 2-2 8, Nwoke 1-4 3-3 5. Totals 24-61 22-32 76.

Halftime—UC Riverside 34, Idaho 34. 3-point goals—UC Riverside 7-17 (Bell 4-8, Thomsen 3-5, Bates 0-1, Soto 0-1, Johnson 0-2), Idaho 6-19 (Watson 3-7, Morris 2-4, Nagle 1-4, Crowell 0-1, C.Johnson 0-1, Webb 0-2). Fouled out—Morris, Nagle. Rebounds—UC Riverside 42 (Bates 9), Idaho 37 (Jackson 9). Assists—UC Riverside 10 (Bell 4), Idaho 13 (Avworo 5). Total fouls—UC Riverside 22, Idaho 20. A—1,013.