If Stephen Madison thought he had a case for WAC Player of the Year, Seattle’s Isiah Umipig one-upped him on Saturday at the Key Arena.
Seattle’s D’Vonne Pickett attempts a layup in Idaho’s 76-68 loss at Seattle. They Vandals fell behind the Redhawks in the WAC standings with the loss. The Vandals’ next chance to move up the standings comes Thursday at Chicago State.
Umipig put 36 points on Idaho, going 8-18 from beyond the arc and keeping the Redhawks one step ahead of Idaho in the second half. He scored 23 in the second half, going 5-of-7 from the 3-point line in the half.
More critically for Idaho, the result of Umipig’s hot-handed performance at the Key Arena was a 76-68 Redhawk victory, leaping the Redhawks over the Vandals in the WAC standings by virtue of the tiebreaker — Seattle beat Idaho in both regular season games.
Umipig’s downpour of 3s in the second half is just what Idaho coach Don Verlin feared despite Umipig shooting just 33 percent in the first half.
Verlin said he wanted Idaho to force him off the 3-point line and make him drive in for 2-point attempts. That defensive plan didn’t work well, considering Umipig got off 18 attempts from beyond the arc.
“I was worried sick, as I told our guys at halftime. Isiah is a good player, he was on a roll, we gave him way too many open looks,” Verlin said. ” I was disappointed in our defense tonight. One of our keys to win is run him off the 3-point line and he got 18 3-point shots.”
Idaho’s conference player of the year candidate, Madison, came into Saturday’s game with three straight performances of at least 21 points and was held to just 18 on Saturday night. But he was also only on the court for 21 minutes. He played just 11 in the first half because of two quick fouls, and was benched after just over two minutes into second half after picking up his third foul. He played the final nine minutes of the game with four fouls.
Still, Madison managed 18 points, three assists and two rebounds in those 21 minutes. He also re-tweaked the ankle that he turned two weeks prior in an 89-88 loss at Utah Valley.
“With anyone, it’s about getting in the rhythm of the game and going up and down, having to go back in, come out. It (the injured ankle) throws you off the rhythm of the game and how it’s being played,” Madison said. “It can throw you off a little bit, but you just have to keep playing through it.”
Without calling the officiating from Saturday’s game poor, Verlin called for more consistency from the officiating in the conference. He said some games are called lightly and some games the officials don’t hesitate to use their whistles. Saturday’s game had 46 fouls between the two teams.
“As a player and a coach, it’s hard to find out how the game is going to be called,” Verlin said.
Umipig overcame his sluggish first half to go off on Idaho in the second half. The shooters mentality of “shooters got to shoot” is what helped him turn the game on Idaho.
“It’s kind of over-confidence, that I’m always going to make the next one. My teammates kind of were telling me going into the timeout to keep shooting,” Umipig said. “I had a couple of bad ones, but I knew it was just a matter of time before they were going in.”
The loss damages Idaho’s chances of avoiding the No. 7 seed in the WAC Tournament.
Worst case, Idaho could finish with the No. 8 seed at 5-11, should Bakersfield and UTPA win next week and finish 6-10. No. 3 Grand Canyon is not eligible for the WAC Tournament as it is in transition to Division I. With the loss to Seattle, the best Idaho could finish is with the No. 4 seed, but that would require every team currently ranked higher than Idaho to lose.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]