For the fifth time in seven games, an Idaho men’s basketball matchup came down to the final possession.
A half-court heave for the Vandals in the waning seconds missed the basket Saturday afternoon, giving Northern Arizona a 72-70 victory in Flagstaff.
“Credit to Northern Arizona, but I didn’t think we were tough enough tonight,” said Idaho head coach Don Verlin. “I thought they were able to do some things that we were trying to prevent.”
Northern Arizona (4-18 overall, 2-9 Big Sky) began the game with a cold shooting streak, converting two of its first 14 shots from the field. The Vandals (14-10 overall, 6-5 Big Sky) took advantage of two blocks from freshman Nick Blair to grab a 16-8 lead over the Lumberjacks.
Northern Arizona responded with a 10-0 run to regain momentum. The Lumberjacks would enter halftime with a 34-32 lead over the Vandals.
Junior forward Ty Egbert led Idaho in the first half with 8 points and four rebounds. Freshman strong forward Nick Blair contributed another six points and redshirt freshman power forward Nate Sherwood collected six rebounds.
Freshman guard Mike Green led the Lumberjacks in the first twenty minutes of the game with 12 points on 4-8 shooting. Freshman forward Corey Brown tallied six rebounds.
Northern Arizona utilized a 9-0 run late in the second half to take a 66-59 lead over Idaho with three minutes to play.
Sophomore forward Jordan Scott would later convert on a put-back attempt with 57 seconds left to cut the Lumberjack lead to 69-67.
On the ensuing possession, Idaho sophomore guard Chad Sherwood earned a foul as he attempted to fight through an offensive screen. The foul was his fifth of the game and sent junior guard Kris Yanku to the free throw line for two shots with 32.4 seconds remaining.
Yanku converted one of the two attempts, but Vandal junior point guard Pat Ingram committed a turnover on the following possession.
Nate Sherwood responded with a pivotal block on the resulting breakaway to prevent the Lumberjacks from scoring, but Idaho was forced to foul, sending junior center Ako Kaluna to the charity stripe.
Kaluna made one of the two free throws to stretch the Northern Arizona lead to 71-67.
The Vandals responded with an offensive push on the other end of the court, as sophomore Arkadiy Mkrtychyan was fouled and hit a short-range shot with 3.8 seconds left in the game. The forward converted the free throw to cut the deficit to 71-70.
Idaho immediately fouled Northern Arizona on the ensuing inbounds play, sending freshman guard Torry Johnson to the free throw line with 3.0 seconds in the game.
The first attempt rattled off the rim, but the Lumberjack freshman sank the second shot to extend the lead to 72-70.
Ingram received the inbounds pass for the Vandals and attempted a half-court shot as time expired, but the ball clanked off the backboard, sealing the win for Northern Arizona.
“I thought that we turned them over, and our defense was good in that regard,” said Northern Arizona coach Jack Murphy.
The third-year coach credited his players for fighting through a mismatch in size against Idaho’s roster.
“We were playing very small against one of the biggest and one of the most physical teams in the league,” Murphy said.
Mkrtychyan finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds for Idaho. Nate Sherwood recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Green finished with 17 points for the Lumberjacks, while Yanku went 12-15 from the free throw line to lead Northern Arizona to the victory.
“We didn’t do a good enough job of sealing our gaps,” Verlin said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of defending without fouling. We didn’t do a good enough job of rebounding.”
The Vandals return to the Cowan Spectrum to face Northern Colorado Thursday at 7 p.m. in Moscow.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom
(Courtesy photo by Nick Canaday)