The University of Idaho Argonaut

Vandal freshman forward Corey Stern reaches for an alley-oop Nov. 6 in Memorial Gym. The Vandals beat Utah 94-87 Friday night but dropped to 1-1 Sunday after losing to Texas Southern 65-72. Nick Groff/Argonaut

With veteran stalwarts Mac Hopson and Kashif Watson mostly looking on from the bench, newcomers Steffan Johnson and Jeff Ledbetter powered the Vandals to a 94-87 season-opening victory over the defending Mountain West Conference-champion Utes in the Huntsman Center.

Playing in his first Division I game as a Vandal, Johnson took over when Hopson and Watson got in foul trouble. Hopson scored 19 points to lead Idaho, while Ledbetter joined him in pouring in 16. Every Vandal put points on the board. It was the first season-opening Division I win for Idaho since 2003, and the first on the road since 1980.

Idaho’s second-year coach came out of the locker room after the game sporting a Super Bowl XL hat, in a tweak to the Utes coach’s pregame remarks.

“This is a huge win to start the season,” Verlin said. “We got after them today, we took them out of their sets and we made some plays when we
had to.”

Verlin credited Boylen’s comments with firing up his team, which felt slighted by the implication that the Utes would be the most important opponent Idaho would face all season.

“Is this our Super Bowl? No. I appreciate Coach Boylen giving us the opportunity to come down here and play, but it really irritated our guys that something like that was said,” Verlin said. “We have a lot of pride in our program and being in the WAC. I have some players with a lot of pride. I thank him for saying it, it was all the motivation we needed. I didn’t have to say a lot in pregame.”

The Vandals controlled the contest most of the way through, leading at the half by six points. A late Utah rally brought the lead down to just one point, 87-86, with 2:23 to play, but Idaho’s defense held the home team to 0-5 from the floor for the rest of the game, giving up just one free throw.

The night’s revelation­­ — the play of Ledbetter, a junior college transfer guard playing in his first Division I game. Ledbetter shot 5-for-7 from the field, including four from downtown, contributing 16 points in just 14 minutes on the court. He also swapped over to cover Marshall Henderson, the Utes’ lights-out long-range threat, effectively neutralizing him in the second half.

“Jeff did a great job, not just as a shooter but as a defender,” Verlin said. “He came in tonight and knocked ‘em down. I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Ledbetter was modest about his breakout performance off the bench.

“I didn’t come out here looking just to get my shot off, but this was just my night,” Ledbetter said. “My guys got me open and I did the easy part.”

Though he rode the pine much of the second half with four fouls, Hopson came back and took control of the game in its waning moments. In all, he scored eight of his 16 points in the final five minutes — perhaps none more important than his only trey of the night.

With 23 seconds remaining and the Vandals leading by three, Hopson took the ball around the corner in what Verlin described as a blown play. As the shot clock was about to expire, Hopson launched a falling-away 3-pointer with a hand in his face — and hit nothing but net, icing the game.

“I knew the time was going down and I just had to take it,” Hopson said. “God blessed me with that shot.”

The Vandals’ other bench players chipped in big contributions too — 43 of Idaho’s 94 points came from reserves, the Vandals’ biggest bench performance in years. Point guard Marcus Lawrence scored seven points and dished up a pair of assists without recording a turnover, while center Kyle Barone relieved Marvin Jefferson, scoring nine points and pulling down four rebounds.

“We never would have been able to win this game last year because we didn’t have the depth,” Verlin said. “The bench was huge.”

Despite being overmatched in the paint by the Utes’ 7-foot-3 center David Foster and 6-foot-11 forward Kim Tillie, the Vandals won one of Verlin’s key points for the season — the rebounding battle. Idaho outhustled Utah on the boards, 40-34, with sophomore forward Luiz Toledo leading the way for the Vandals with six.