The Idaho men’s basketball team came away with a convincing 77-61 win against the Concordia Cavaliers in their regular season home opener Thursday night in Memorial Gym.
The visiting Cavaliers stormed out of the gates early but Idaho kept their NAIA Division II opponent in check, despite a phenomenal start from Kevan West, who scored Concordia’s first seven points.
“I thought we played pretty well from a defensive standpoint, a little better than we have holding a few guys down,” coach Don Verlin said. “I thought we made a few executional errors, too many errors, especially from the free throw line but I thought we played hard and battled hard.”
West accounted for 13 of Concordia’s 31 first-half points but the Vandals blocked five first-half shots and extended their lead to 16 points heading into halftime.
The Vandals were vulnerable to first-half turnovers and sent Concordia to the charity stripe after sending them into the bonus with more than six and a half minutes remaining in the first half.
Deremy Geiger boosted Idaho’s momentum with three buckets from beyond the arc after 20 minutes of play and preseason All-WAC first teamer Kyle Barone made the most of a major size mismatch and grabbed seven first-half rebounds.
“I think it was a great team performance, we had a lot of defensive strategies we wanted to execute in the game, how we wanted to guard certain players,” Geiger said. “I think we really came out and executed and I think that was a big influence for us.”
The Vandal defense had no answer for West in the second half but Concordia’s other four starters combined for just 25 points compared to 59 from Idaho’s starting five.
West led all scorers with 29 points and the senior guard was 11-18 from the field.
“He’s real unique for his position and his size and he does a lot with his ability. He can shoot it, he can drive and he really did a lot of that tonight,” Geiger said.
Geiger gave West a run for his money and was Idaho’s leading scorer with 19 points. The Las Vegas, Nev., native finished above all other Vandals with five assists. The senior knocked down five three pointers
and was 45 percent from long range.
Barone finished with 10 rebounds, 11 points and three blocks, marking his second consecutive game with at least ten rebounds. Sophomore Stephen Madison had 15 points, five rebounds and shot 60 percent from the field.
Ten Vandal players tallied 22 fouls and Idaho found themselves in double bonus with five minutes remaining in the second half. Concordia converted 19 of 25 free throws and concluded with 16 fouls.
Idaho visits the University of Montana on Thursday
for a 6 p.m. tipoff at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula. The
Grizzlies were 22-10 last season and 12-4 in the Big Sky Conference.
The Vandals were obliterated by the Grizz last season, falling 75-33 in Missoula.
“If you’re any kind of competitor like I am, we’ll be ready,” Verlin said. “It’s always a tough place to play, it’s a long time Big Sky rival, we’ve got to go and play a lot better than we did last year.”