It was a basketball game that had no meaning for conference standings, but was a preview of the Idaho men’s basketball team’s first round opponent.
The Vandals traveled down to Kansas City to take on Missouri-Kansas City Saturday to wrap up regular season play. In a game that saw each team go on 20-point-plus runs, the Vandals came out on top — winning the game 87-80.
“I’m really proud of my guys,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “I was on them hard tonight and have been hard on them the past week — because we’re playing our best basketball.”
The Vandals have been upping the tempo as the season progresses, and Saturday was no exception.
Idaho pushed the tempo right from the opening tip and went on a 10-2 run, early in the first half, when they led by as many as 12 points.
Stephen Madison and Connor Hill controlled the game early on. Hill hit four 3-pointers and had 12 points in the first half. Madison added to Hill’s total with 17 points of his own.
Everything seemed to be going right for the Vandals. Even when the shot clock was winding down, Glen Dean found an open Madison with just two seconds left, at the top of the key. Madison, with a hand in his face, nailed a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer.
The Vandals went cold after that, taking more than four minutes to score again. UMKC went on a 20-2 run to lead and led by as many as 10 points in the second half.
Idaho had a couple players get into foul trouble who were then subbed out, leading to a lack of defense, Verlin said. Bira Seck ended the game with four personal fouls and Madison had three.
Verlin said when Idaho isn’t scoring the ball with ease, they don’t want to lock down on the other end . Idaho made a number of errors on the scouting report and game plan and that’s how they got back into the game, Verlin said .
“What we got to learn to do, is when we got our foot on someone’s throat, we got to continue to leave it on their throat, we can’t let it off,” Verlin said. “We’ve done that this trip, we have played some segments of some really good basketball.”
The Vandals went on a 25-2 run to climb back and take the lead 80-67, with less than two minutes to play in the game. That’s the biggest run they’ve had this season.
The Vandals never looked back from that run, going on to win the game.
“What happened tonight in that run, we started getting some stops and were able to get into our transition game and that’s when were at our best,” Verlin said. “That’s the reason we went on that 25-2 run — we got stops and got out in transition.”
Madison led the Vandals with 26 points, adding eight rebounds and four assists. Hill was right behind him with 24 points, going 6-of-10 from the 3-point line.
Idaho finished the season winning four of their final five games, heading into the WAC Tournament. The Vandals will face UMKC again Thursday in Las Vegas.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]