Early foul trouble and a multitude of injuries plagued the Idaho men’s basketball program Saturday, as the team fell to Montana State 70-68 in Bozeman.
The Vandals had difficulty matching the Bobcats offense after Idaho’s top two contributors were ruled out of the matchup with separate injuries.
“When you play (Don) Verlin’s team, you know you are going to be in a tough game,” said Montana State head coach Brian Fish. “They were down a couple of good players, and they brought it and exposed us in the first half with toughness.”
Idaho (12-8 overall, 4-3 Big Sky) employed a zone defense during the first twenty minutes of play, as the team held the Bobcats to 23 first-half points.
The Vandals were without leading scorer Victor Sanders, who was absent from the lineup with a wrist injury. The junior guard was responsible for 89 points in Idaho’s previous three games.
Freshman small forward Nick Blair came off the bench to spark the Vandal offense with 14 points in the first half. Blair went 5-7 from the field and connected on four 3-pointers to help Idaho grab a 33-23 lead over Montana State at halftime.
“Well Victor (Sanders) was hurt, and anytime you have a good team they have a chance for guys to step up and Nick Blair stepped up and made some 3-pointers for them,” said Fish.
Junior guard Quinton Everett led the Bobcat offense with 9 points and two rebounds in the first two halves.
The Vandals shot 54.5 percent from the field in the first half and converted 5 of 8 shots behind the arc, while Montana State shot 27.6 percent from the floor.
The Bobcats (9-11 overall, 4-4 Big Sky) used a 9-0 run early in the second half to pull within four points, as junior guard Stephan Holm connected on a layup to cut the Idaho lead to 38-34.
The Bobcats took advantage of four Vandal turnovers in a span of five minutes to regain the lead.
“We turned it over too much,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. “They scored a bunch of points in transition. The turnovers finally caught up to us tonight.”
Freshman guard Tyler Hall connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Bobcats up 53-47 midway through the second half.
The Vandals were able to use a 7-0 run to pull within two points, but Montana State responded with a hot shooting streak and several pivotal free throws in the closing seconds to seal a 70-68 victory.
Junior guard Ty Egbert finished as the Vandals leading scorer with 18 points. The walk-on shot 6-8 from the field and collected seven rebounds for Idaho.
Montana State received 23 points from senior guard Marcus Colbert and 16 points from Hall. Sophomore Zach Green collected five rebounds and added another 10 points for the Bobcats.
Idaho had a higher shooting percentage than Montana State, finishing the game with a 54.3 percent average from the field compared to 41.3 percent by the Bobcats. But Montana State attempted 63 shots during the game, compared to Idaho’s 46.
“I thought under the circumstances our guys fought hard,” Verlin said. “We had a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot this season step up. I thought our guys really, really competed hard.”
The Vandals are scheduled to return to Moscow to face Sacramento State at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Cowan Spectrum.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom