Idaho completes unlikely run to Big Sky Tournament championship game with 81-68 win over EWU
BOISE — Kolton Mitchell has struggled with a back injury over the past few weeks, but it didn’t prevent the Idaho guard from performing some heavy lifting in the Vandals’ Big Sky tourney semifinal Tuesday night.
Mitchell scored a couple of critical buckets down the stretch and finished with a game-high 26 points to lead Idaho to an 81-68 victory over Eastern Washington.
In the waning seconds of the game, Mitchell tracked down a loose ball and dribbled the ball to the corner of the court, pumping his fist and looked up at the Idaho contingent, urging them on. And the crowd responded with a roar.
Idaho (20-14), which defeated EWU in all three of their meetings this season, will face Montana in the Big Sky title game Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., the Vandals’ first appearance in the conference title game since 2014.
The Grizzlies knocked off top-seeded Portland State 75-72 earlier Tuesday to earn their berth.
If the Vandals hope to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990, they’ll have to do something they haven’t done all season—beat the Grizzlies.
Montana swept a pair of meetings between the two programs this season, winning 79-73 in Moscow and 73-68 in Missoula.
The Vandals led for all but fifteen seconds of the game in posting their sixth victory in their last seven games.
EWU (14-19) will rue losing its chance to play for the Big Sky tournament championship after the Eagles’ dramatic late-season turnaround. After going 8-0 in February, EWU emerged from a tight conference race with the third seed but ended its season never having solved the Vandals.
“Idaho dictated the game and as a lot of people know, that’s my alma mater,” EWU coach Dan Monson said. “They honored my father all year and they did it in class fashion. I was really proud of our guys. We didn’t play well enough to win. We understand that. It just wasn’t our night.”
Mitchell sparked a 15-3 run early in the game for the Vandals, scoring eight points in that span as Idaho built a 23-10 lead.
But EWU chipped away at the deficit with a 7-0 run before a tip-in by JoJo Anderson pulled the Eagles within 31-28 with 2:29 left in the first half.
Idaho closed out the half with a 3-pointer by Jack Payne and then a bucket in the paint by Trevon Blassingame, rebuilding its lead to 36-28 at the break.
In the second half, Idaho’s swarming defense prevented EWU from finding any rhythm.
“They made it hard,” Monson said. “Those shots were all contested. And at this time of the year, the referees are going to let the players decide it. We like to play inside out, but today just wasn’t our day for that.”
The Eagles could never get any closer than three points before a late surge by the Vandals put the game away.
“We just didn’t get enough stops in a row to make it a game down the stretch,” EWU guard Isaiah Moses said. “We’d get it down to four and the next thing you know, they hit a couple of shots and the lead’s back up to eight.”
Idaho shot 50.9 percent from the field and was 33.3 percent from 3-point range in spreading the offense. Jack Rasmussen scored 16 points, while Biko Johnson and Isaiah Brickner added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
EWU was paced offensively by Kiree Huie, who scored 20 points, while Anderson added 12. Isaiah Moses and Alton Hamilton, the Eagles’ offensive heroes in their quarterfinal victory over Weber State, were held to 10 points each.
But the Eagles were ultimately done in by a poor shooting performance, making just 37.1 percent of their shots from the field and a dismal 15 percent from 3-point range.