Vandals victimize themselves in loss at UM

MISSOULA – Foul trouble and turnovers always are costly – even more so on the road as the Idaho Vandals found out Saturday night at Montana where 17 turnovers and 23 fouls were big factors in their 70-56 Big Sky Conference loss. “We just couldn’t get any continuity in this game,” said coach Don Verlin, who had to move players into less familiar roles to combat their early foul trouble. “We weren’t nearly as good as we should have been offensively.” Idaho’s 56 points were more than 20 fewer than its season average of 77.1; the turnovers were five more than its season average. Still, Verlin said, credit the Grizzlies, who improved to 12-10 overall and 8-3 in the Big Sky to Idaho’s 9-12, 4-6. “This is a good Montana team,” he said. “They took it to us.” Idaho had leads of as many as seven points in the first half but wound up allowing a 14-0 Montana run as the Grizzlies took a 32-24 halftime lead. The Vandals made repeated runs at the Grizzlies throughout the second half – to within four on two Connor Hill free throws with 4:37 to play, only to have Montana find a way to stop the run and preserve its advantage. Freshman Arkadiy Mkrtychyan led Idaho with 11 points and Hill finished with nine. Idaho, one of the Big Sky’s top rebounding teams, was outrebounded 38-32. Paulin Mpawe had a team-high four for the Vandals. Jordan Gregory scored 17 points and three other Montana players reached double figures. Martin Breunig scored 12 points, Brandon Gfeller (Colfax) had 11 and Mario Dunn chipped in 10 for the Grizzlies, who shot 50 percent from the floor.