North Dakota eases past Idaho for 12th consecutive Big Sky men’s basketball home win

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Geno Crandall scored 22 points and North Dakota earned its 12th straight Big Sky home win in an 88-65 blowout over Idaho on Saturday.

The game was the only regular-season matchup between the schools. With the win, North Dakota maintains its one-game lead over Eastern Washington for second place in the conference standings.

Quinton Hooker finished with 21 points and Carson Shanks added 11 for the Fighting Hawks, who were efficient on offense all the way around. North Dakota shot 50 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range, and 85.7 percent at the free-throw line.

The Fighting Hawks put together a 22-5 stretch over roughly six minutes in the first half and led 49-33 at the break.

Two Crandall free throws gave North Dakota a 20-point lead, and Idaho never mounted a serious challenge the rest of the way.

“You have to give North Dakota credit,” Vandals head coach Don Verlin said. “They were a step quicker than we were tonight in every aspect of the game. You look at the stat sheet at the end of the game, they just played harder than we did.

“They made some shots early, we got in foul trouble early which didn’t help us. We could never sustain any type of run tonight, especially offensively. The bottom line is we got our tails kicked tonight.”

Idaho’s shooting was off. The Vandals shot 26 of 62 from the floor, including 4 of 19 on 3-pointers.