Landon Tatum’s second-half buzzer beater lit up Memorial Gym, but 1,057 Vandal fans had little else to smile about during the men’s basketball team’s 73-66 loss to Eastern Washington Wednesday night.
The Eagles found their hot hand from 3-point range early in the contest and used multiple momentum boosts to propel them to their fourth win of the season, and second against WAC opponents.
It would’ve taken a flawless defensive performance to cool down the Eagles’ 3-point shooting, which saw them convert 8 of 16 from behind the arc in the first-half. Tallying five more in the second half only added to the Vandals’ downfall, which began shortly following tipoff.
“You’ve got to give Eastern a lot of credit, they did a great job executing their offense, they did a great job knocking down shots and we didn’t do a good enough job getting to the 3-point shooters,” coach Don Verlin said. “I thought they came in here and beat us in every aspect of the game.”
The Eagles dictated momentum early, winning the opening tipoff and scoring the game’s first five points, all while holding Idaho to just four points after the first 10 minutes of play.
Although the Vandals obtained a scoring rhythm of their own, the Eastern Washington 3-point shooters were firing on all cylinders.
Idaho trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half but hacked the deficit down to 14 before halftime.
A more determined Vandal squad earned some early second-half momentum when Deremy Geiger and Djim Bandoumel connected for a crowd-energizing alley-oop, which preceded a Stephen Madison 3-pointer that cut the Eagle lead to nine points.
Eastern Washington’s first-year coach John Hayford was hasty in calling a timeout, after which the Vandals endured an ice cold five-minute stretch that saw them miss five consecutive attempts from the field and turn the ball over twice.
Verlin claimed that the early deficit was detrimental to his squad’s performance, but praised a talented Eastern team.
“Any time you get off to a slow start, yeah it’s tough to climb out of that hole especially with a team as well-coached as Eastern, with their ball control and the way they shoot threes,” he said. “You’ve got to be tough to play basketball. You’ve got to be tough enough to fight through when you’re down a little bit.”
Idaho center Kyle Barone proved to be an early threat to the Eagles and tallied 10 points in the first half before the defense clamped down, only allowing him four points in the second, all of which came from free throws.
The Eagles were led by the seniors Cliff Ederaine and Cliff Colimon, who each finished with 13 points, while Ederaine grabbed eight boards and Colimon notched six assists. Junior forward Jordan Hickert knocked down four 3-pointers for 12 points and senior Laron Griffin brought down a game-high 10 rebounds.
Barone led Idaho with 14 points, and Tatum, Madison and Mansa Habeeb trailed with 10 apiece. Habeeb was a perfect 4-4 from the field and knocked down both of his three-point attempts.
Idaho travels to California for the second time this season for a match-up with UC Davis. The Aggies are 1-6 this season coming off a 20-point loss to the same Eastern Washington team Idaho played Wednesday. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Pavilion.