Dancing again: How Idaho men’s basketball earned first NCAA tourney berth since 1990

BOISE — After 36 years, the Idaho men’s basketball team is finally going dancing again.

The plucky seventh-seeded Vandals grounded out a 77-66 win over fourth-seeded Montana in the Big Sky Conference championship game Wednesday night at Idaho Central Arena.

Idaho last won a Big Sky tourney final in 1990 when the Vandals defeated Eastern Washington 65-62 on a Richardo Boyd 3-pointer at the buzzer.

No dramatics were necessary this time as Idaho senior Isaiah Brickner, whose 23 points and 10 rebounds led the team offensively, hurled the ball into the rafters and circled up with his teammates to celebrate as the final horn sounded and confetti flittered onto the court.

“This was the vision three years ago when we took over the program, to build a program we could be proud of, competing for championships and doing it the right way,” Idaho coach Alex Pribble said. “Every day these guys show up and work hard and trust the process. We had some adversity this year, but I think we learned the lessons we needed to learn to get better.”

The Vandals (21-14), still in search of their first NCAA Tournament victory, will learn the identity of their opening opponent on Sunday afternoon during the Selection Show.

Defending champion Montana (18-16) failed in its bid to win back-to-back Big Sky titles after last accomplishing the feat in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

Idaho held Big Sky-leader scorer Money Williams to 19 points — well below the 36 points per game he was averaging in the team’s first two tourney games. Most of his points came late when the Grizzlies were in catch-up mode.

Offensively, the Vandals rode an 23-point performance from senior Isaiah Brickner, who entered the final averaging 10.3 points per game in the tournament. It was his third highest point total this season.

As a team, the Vandals shot 40.7 percent from the field for the game, hitting 46.2 percent of their shots in the second half.

“(Brickner) was a huge spark for us and did a great job of attacking the paint,” Pribble said. “Isaiah brought a spark to our team tonight. He’s an experienced guy and was encouraging the team during timeouts. He made sure that his teammates were still locked in.”

From the opening tip, Montana didn’t try to hide its game plan, attacking Idaho 6-foot-11 forward Brody Rowbury in an effort to get him in early foul trouble and mitigate Idaho’s advantage in the paint.

And it worked — sort of.

Rowbury, who finished with 12 points, committed two fouls less than six minutes into the game and was sent to the bench for the remainder of the half.

“Brody is a huge part of what we do defensively not just because of his physical presence, but he really anchors our defense. He protects the rim and he protects the paint,” Pribble said. “We needed Brody in there, but we did a good job of weathering the storm in the first half. His ability to be in foul trouble in the first half and come back in the second half and play the way he played, speaks to his character and the kind of player he is.”

It didn’t seem to effect Idaho on either end of the court with Rowbury out. The Vandals went on a 9-2 run over the next 3:30, taking a 20-10 lead with 11:00 left in the half.

Even with Rowbury out, Montana struggled to find much success in the paint. So, the Grizzlies turned to their perimeter game to find their way back into it.

Three different Grizzlies players hit 3-pointers to spark a 19-4 run and take a 29-24 lead with 4:06 left in the half.

Idaho responded with a 6-0 run of its own before Montana hit a late shot to claim a 31-30 halftime lead.

In a matchup of two of the Big Sky’s better defensive teams, neither offense found much of a groove for long. Montana shot 36 percent from the floor, while Idaho managed 36.4 percent.

But with Rowbury back in the second half, Idaho leveraged its advantage in the paint to slowly a lead.

The Vandals’ smothered Montana inside, forcing the Grizzlies to rely on its outside game, which turned cold.

Then after Idaho had cobbled together a seven-point lead, Rowbury displayed his versatility. Lurking at the top of the arc, Rowbury was left open before drilling a 3-pointer that drew a deafening roar from the Vandal faithful with 8:35 remaining and put Idaho ahead 53-43, its first double-digit lead since the first half.

Montana could never get any closer than seven points the rest of the way, as Idaho secured the victory from the free throw line, hitting 11 of 14 in the final two minutes.

Te’Jon Sawyer also scored 19 for Montana, while Hick added 11.

Kolton Mitchell and Trevon Blassingame added 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Idaho.