Idaho sophomore guards Victor Sanders and Chad Sherwood led the Vandals with a combined 42 points in the Idaho men’s basketball team’s 85-59 win against Linfield College Saturday at the Memorial Gym.
Sanders and Sherwood contributed 23 and 19 points respectively. Both are career-high numbers. Sanders’ previous career high was 13 against San Jose State Nov. 14. Sherwood scored five points against California State-Bakersfield Nov. 17.
The duo helped the Vandals take the lead toward the end of the first half.
“I just took the open shot,” Sanders said. “My teammates got me the ball and I just did what I was supposed to do, shoot the ball.”
Idaho kept Linfield’s offense contained, including its leading scorer, Kyle Maloof, who was held to 10 points. Maloof has averaged 15.5 points per game this season.
The Vandals shot 54 percent from the field and 60 percent from behind the arc. Against California State-Bakersfield, the Vandals shot 30 percent from the field and 26.7 percent from 3-point range.
“We got together as a group and came to the collective decision as a group that we needed to play harder, no matter who we’re playing.” Sanders said. “I think we came out and made that adjustment and I think the score showed it.”
Idaho senior forward Nahshon George led Idaho with eight rebounds.
The Vandals held Linfield to 37 percent shooting from the field.
“They had us off our game a bit with their match-up zone and shooting those 3’s right off the bat,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said.
The Wildcats managed 28 points in the second half. Idaho maintained its offense in the second half, adding 44 points.
Idaho finished with 21 assists and 11 steals.
“You look at the scores and stats at the end of the game, we obviously played a very good second half,” Verlin said. “Our guys did a great job of hanging in there.”
Freshman small forward Nick Blair made his Idaho debut with one point and two assists.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos