Vandals clinch at least third seed

Once again the Idaho Vandals got off to a scorching start on the road. And unlike last week at Utah State, Idaho was able to keep up the white-hot pace at Hawaii late Thursday night.

Read on for more on UI’s 82-63 win that clinched at least the third seed in the WAC tournament next week.

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The Vandals (17-12, 8-5) had it all working in Honolulu. Strong 3-point shooting. Marked improvement in the rebounding column compared to their loss to UH in Moscow. Lockdown defense, especially from Kyle Barone on skilled big man Vander Joaquim.

And every time it looked like UH might make a big push and get back in the game, the Vandals answered with key shots. Deremy Geiger and Stephen Madison hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put UI up 60-43 — after the Warriors had trimmed the Vandals’ lead to single digits early in the second half.

Geiger finished with 20 points on 4-of-9 shooting from outside and Madison had 17 points with eight rebounds. Two reserve guards — Mike McChristian and Connor Hill — also came up big. Hill had three early 3s to pad Idaho’s lead, and McChristian knocked down his first 3 to go along with a career-high nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Vandals won the rebounding battle by a 46-27 margin — the most they have outrebounded a WAC opponent since joining the conference — and made 20 of 25 free throws.

““When you outrebound somebody by 19 – that’s how you get a road win,” Don Verlin said. “You look at the overall stats, and it really came down to rebounding tonight. We just dominated there.”

Idaho is now a game behind New Mexico State, which fell 65-61 at Nevada. The Wolf Pack clinched the league title, and the Vandals can earn the No. 2 seed with a win at San Jose State on Saturday and a NMSU loss at Fresno State. That last part seems unlikely given that NMSU has been one of the top teams in the WAC this season and Fresno is 3-10 in conference play and lost to Louisiana Tech on Thursday.

Either way, the Vandals have exceeded expectations. They were picked in the preseason to finish fifth in the league but have now won six of seven games. A win at SJSU will make them the second-hottest team in the WAC going into the tourney in Las Vegas.

Since joining the WAC in 2005, Idaho has never won more than a play-in game at the conference tournament. This year all eight teams play Thursday in the first round. If the Vandals are the third seed, they could end up facing Hawaii (as the sixth seed) depending on how the last day of the regular season shakes out.

Here’s what we know for sure: Nevada will be the No. 1 seed, Fresno State will be the seventh seed and San Jose State will be the eighth seed. Utah State, Louisiana Tech and Hawaii will be seeded fourth through sixth, depending on Saturday’s results.