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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Vandals hold on down stretch

MOSCOW – Perrion Callandret wasn’t trying to think about it too much, even though the game was on the line.

Callandret, calm, cool and collected drained a pair of free throws both with 19 and 11 seconds left to give the Vandals all the wiggle room needed to come out with a 67-63 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday night at Memorial Gym.

It might’ve been muscle memory at that point for the junior, who was a perfect 12 for 12 from the free-throw line to compliment his career high 26 points.

“Honestly, going up there, I tried not to think about it too much,” Callandret said. “Coach has been having us shoot free throws a lot this week … I just went out there and concentrated.”

Callandret spread his damage across the floor, scoring four baskets at the rim and hitting two 3-pointers.

“I just picked my spots well,” Callandret said. “I just feel like I’m playing a role and knocking down my open shots. I don’t feel like it was too much of a breakout being a scorer, more being in the right spots.”

Idaho worked its offense inside-out on Wednesday, remedying attempting 83 3-point shots in the last four games combined. Idaho attempted only 14 of them, going 5 of 9 from deep in the second half.

Instead, the plan was to feed the sophomore beast Arkadiy Mkrtychyan. Despite still recovering from knee surgey, he scored four quick points and touched the ball on Idaho’s first five possessions, but struggled against Bakersfield’s Aly Ahmed. He only finished with five points.

The inside game still set up Idaho’s guard play, which in addition to Callandret’s performance was the 15-point night from Spokane native Chris Sarbaugh.

Sarbaugh, who walked on at Gonzaga out of high school, transferred to Idaho from San Diego as a graduate transfer and has been a mainstay in the lineup, starting all eight games for the Vandals.

The former Gonzaga Prep standout scored his 15 on eight attempts, also grabbing seven boards and nabbing two steals on a night when Gonzaga was only eight miles away at Washington State.

“This is my fourth school in five years, but it feels like I’ve been here a lot longer. They’ve made me feel welcome and they have confidence in me. That was the biggest key so far this year,” Sarbaugh said.

Bakersfield knocked off Idaho 68-45 the first time the two met this season, the second game of the season for both clubs. The Nov. 17 meeting was a woeful performance for the Vandals, who couldn’t recover from a 21-5 deficit to start the game.

“One of the things we talked about all week, Bakersfield doesn’t know how tough we are and we did a real good job of standing our ground,” Verlin said.

With Chris Sarbaugh’s former school playing only eight miles away at Washington State, the former Gonzaga walk-on set a career-high in points at the Division I level with 15 points.