The Idaho men’s basketball team utilized an early lead to come out on the winning side of a 76-67 contest with Big Sky opponent Montana State Saturday in Memorial Gym.
The win sets the Vandals one game above .500 and gives them their first pair of consecutive wins this season.
The Vandals jumped out to an early lead in the first half and led by as many as 20, thanks in large part to the Idaho starting five, who contributed to all but five of the teams’ 32 first-half points.
“I thought we played really well for about 17 minutes, then we played ok the rest of the way,” coach Don Verlin said. “If you’re going to be a good team, you’ve got to take care of your home court and I thought our guys came out like they wanted to, at least in the first half.”
During those 17 minutes, Idaho stretched its lead to 32-12 and had little trouble penetrating the paint as Deremy Geiger led all scorers at halftime.
The Bobcats clawed their way back into the game with 3:35 remaining in the half after a 3-pointer from Jeff Budinich sparked a 10-0 run that would see the visitors trailing by 10 at the half.
Montana State came out of the gates hot and closed Idaho’s lead to just eight points following a lay-up, but senior center Kyle Barone made the most of a three-point play to earn the Vandals’ first points in more than six minutes.
Geiger made his presence known in the second half, almost doubling his point tally for the first half with 15. He left the game leading all scorers with 23 points, four assists and two rebounds.
“I thought our two senior guards played very well tonight,” Verlin said of Geiger and Landon Tatum. “They controlled the tempo of the game and had very good defensive pressure, and it didn’t show in the stats, but I thought Kyle Barone had a really good game, too.”
Barone managed just 11 points but his assistance on the boards was crucial, grabbing nine rebounds. Tatum seemed rather quiet with 11 points but the senior was the only player, on either side, to shoot 100 percent from the field going 4-4.
The Bobcats kept scratching but the Vandals’ starting five ended up with 62 of the team’s 76 points. Stephen Madison and Djim Bandoumel rounded it out with eight and nine points, respectively.
“We had some guys step off the bench and scrap like crazy,” Verlin said. “I’m starting to figure out who I want to play and how I want to do it, and I like the direction we’re going.”
Matt Borton and Mansa Habeeb led the bench with four points each while Borton, a redshirt freshman, grabbed six rebounds during 19 minutes of play.
Memorial Gym will be the site of Idaho’s next match-up, a Wednesday night contest with another Big Sky opponent, Eastern Washington. The Eagles are coming off a big win against Hawaii and most recently, a 79-59 rout of UC Davis.
Tipoff on Wednesday night will be at 8:05 p.m. after the women’s game against the University of Washington.