The new 2018-2019 Idaho men’s basketball squad made its debut Friday night in the exhibition game against Lewis-Clark State College.
The team dropped the contest 65-59 in the Memorial Gym after trailing the contest for all but 30 seconds.
“Got to give LC all the credit, the came in here and played harder than we did, rebounded the ball better than we did. They defended better than we did, shot it better than we did,” Idaho Head Coach Don Verlin said.
Idaho’s starting lineup featured two freshmen — guard Cameron Tyson and forward Jared Rodriguez — junior transfer from Midland College guard Marquell Fraser, sophomore forward Scott Blakney and returning vet junior guard Trevon Allen.
The nearly the full team came off the bench at some point in the contest. 
The Warriors came out swinging, notching the first points of the contest in the opening minute. Blakney was quick to respond for the Vandals to get Idaho on the board.
The senior-heavy Lewis-Clark team grabbed the lead in the first few minutes and continued to extend, pushing out to a 10-point lead over the Vandals with 12 minutes left in the opening half.
The Vandals managed to cut the Warrior lead to five points, heading into the half down 36-31.
For every Idaho action, it seemed there was a Warrior reaction. The Vandal defense came out strong to start the second half, momentarily slowing down the Warrior offense.
After LCSC once again pushed its lead out to double-digits, Idaho rallied and the contest quickly turned into a battle from the free throw line. A number of Vandals went to the line, including Oregon State transfer sophomore guard Xavier Smith, who went 2-2 from the line to pull the score in to 58-47 with six minutes left to play.
Fraser later took another trip back to the free throw line, draining 2-2 to make it a six-point game with four minutes remaining.
Tyson knocked in a shot from beyond the arc with less than a minute to play to bring the score to 61-57 and a Vandal comeback looked like a potential.
The two teams traded trips to the line, but the Warriors had the final word when Warrior guard Derrick White completed a perfect trip to the line, pushing the Idaho comeback out of reach.
Idaho fell to the Warriors 65-59, the first time in Idaho Head Coach Don Verlin’s time with the program.
Idaho finished the contest just 16-27 from the line compared to the Warriors 7-11 on the night.
Vandal veteran Allen led the team in scoring, finishing the night with 16 points and five rebounds. Tyson finished as the second highest scoring Vandal with 11 points.
Lewis-Clark was led by guard David Shedrock with 17 points and five rebounds.
“Obviously have a ton of new guys and we all have to be patient and positive and we got to continue to grow,” Verlin said. “The Vandals are going to be shocked how good this team becomes. But it is going to take us some time. Yes, some guys did well and some guys didn’t do things well. But what we got to do is get better every day.”
Idaho will have a quick turnaround as it travels to play UC Irvine 6 p.m. Nov. 6 in Irvine, California.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]