Isiah Umipig rains 36 on Idaho in deflating WAC loss

(Photo credit: Eric Badeau)

If Stephen Madison thought he had a case for conference player of the year, Seattle’s Isiah Umipig one-upped him on Saturday night at the Key Arena.

Umipig put 36 points on Idaho, going 8-18 from beyond-the-arc and keeping the Redhawks one step ahead of Idaho in the second half. He scored 23 in the second half, going 5-7 from 3 in the half.

More critically for Idaho, the result of Umipig’s hot-handed performance at the Key Arena was a 76-68 Redhawk victory, leaping the Redhawks over the Vandals in the WAC standings by virtue of the tie-breaker of the sweep.

Umipig’s downpour of 3s in the second half is just what Idaho coach Don Verlin feared in the second half, despite him shooting just 33-percent in the first half.

Verlin wanted Idaho to force him off the 3-point line and make him drive in for 2-point attempts. That defensive plan didn’t work very well considering Umipig got 18 attempts from 3 off.

“I was worried sick as I told our guys at halftime, Isiah is a good player, he was on a roll, we gave him way too many open looks,” Verlin said. “We tried all week (to prepare) denying the ball back. I was disappointed in our defense tonight, one of our keys to win as run him off the 3 point line and he got 18 3 point shots.”

Idaho’s conference player of the year candidate came in with three straight games of at least 21 points and was held to just 18 on Saturday night. He was also only on the court for 21 minutes. He played just 11 in the first half because of two quick fouls, and was sat down after just over two minutes into second half after picking up his third foul. He played the final nine minutes of the game with four fouls.

Still, Madison managed 18 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds in those 21 minutes. He also re-tweaked the ankle that he turned two weeks prior in a 89-88 loss at Utah Valley.

“With anyone it’s about getting in the rhythm of the game and going up and down, having to go back in, come out. It throws you off the rhythm of the game and how it’s being played, it can throw you off a little bit but you just have to keep playing through it,” Madison said.

“Refs call what they call, nothing you can do about it, you just have to keep playing, trying to play hard and not try and give it up the next time,” he said.

Other notes

– Without calling the officiating from Saturday’s game poor, Verlin called for more consistency from the officiating in the conference. He said some games are called lightly and some games the officials don’t hesitate to use their whistles. Saturday’s game had 46 fouls between the two teams.

“It’s really interesting how this game has been called this year. I don’t want to say it was poor officiated, but inconsistent officiating is what I’d call it. As a player and a coach it’s hard to find out how the game is going to be called,” he said.

– Connor Hill had a typical road game for himself, as in he was making shots comfortably. He finished with 18 points on only 9 shot attempts, 4 of them makes from 3.

– Isiah Umipig overcame his sluggish first half to go off on Idaho in the second half. The shooters mentality of “shooters got to shoot” is what helped him turn the game on Idaho.

“Yeah I think, it’s kind of over-confidence, that I’m always going to make the next one. My teammates kind of were telling me going into the timeout to keep shooting,” Umipig said. “I had a couple of bad ones but I knew it was just a matter of time before they were going in.”

– Seeding scenarios

The loss damages Idaho’s chances of avoiding the 7th seed in the WAC Tournament. Idaho would currently be slotted as the 6-seed, half a game ahead of 5-10 Bakersfield. Idaho would have the tie-breaker over 5-10 UT-Pan American by virtue of sweeping the Broncs in the regular season.

Idaho has games remaining against 7-7 Chicago State and 6-8 Missouri-Kansas City. Idaho’s best-case scenario would have the Vandals at 7-9 and the 4-seed. (Chicago State would own too many tie-breakers for Idaho to overcome the Cougars with identical 7-9 records).

Worst case, Idaho could finish with the 8-seed at 5-11 should Bakersfield and UTPA win next week and finish 6-10. Grand Canyon is not eligible for the WAC Tournament.

(Team, conf. record, remaining games)

1 – Utah Valley – 12-3 – v. Bakersfield
2 – New Mexico State – 11-4 – v. Grand Canyon
3 – Chicago State – 7-7 – v. Idaho, v. Seattle
4 – UMKC – 6-8 – v. Seattle, v. Idaho
5 – Seattle – 5-9 – v. UMKC, v. Chicago State
6 – Idaho – 5-9 – v. Chicago State, v. UMKC
7. Bakersfield – 5-10 – v. Utah Valley
8. UTPA – 5-10 – v. Grand Canyon

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