Idaho men’s basketball came up short in its return to Cowan Spectrum Thursday in a game where momentum mattered most.
The Vandals dropped their fourth conference game of the season in a 67-77 loss to the Montana State Bobcats.
“We just couldn’t get a big stop there down the stretch,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said.
A hungry Bobcats squad entered the arena fired up to avenge last year’s 10-point loss to the Vandals by quickly jumping out to a 6-0 early lead. Idaho recovered from it’s slow start to tie the game up before Montana State answered again with another six-point run.
The Bobcats held the Vandals scoreless for nearly six minutes in the first half, before Idaho finally got a basket to roll in with under nine minutes remaining.
After a close defensive battle in the first half, Montana State held the advantage with a nine-point 30-21 lead heading into halftime.
“We didn’t play well at all in the first half offensively but we played well defensively,” Verlin said. “In the second half we played well offensively but didn’t play well defensively.”
Idaho shot 31 percent in the first half and 53 percent in the second, but still came up short to a Bobcat team that also decided to wake up on the offensive side of the ball in the second half.
With around 10 minutes to play in the remainder of the game, Idaho freshmen guards Cameron Tyson and RayQuawndis Mitchell started to find their shooting stroke for the Vandals to cut the Bobcat lead to three.
After a Montana State timeout, the Bobcats regrouped and answered with a few 3-pointers to gain a nine-point 61-52 lead with under seven minutes remaining in the game.
The Vandals could not find a way to cut the deficit in the final minutes, giving Montana State its fourth Big Sky conference win of the season.
“They started to knock down some shots and I think that was a key thing,” Idaho junior guard Trevon Allen said. “In the second half they started to knock down shots which makes it tough when we get our little burst of energy for them to as well.”
Allen finished with a team high 23 points on the night to lead the Vandals and continue his strong start to conference play.
“He (Allen) is one of the few guys on our team that’s played a lot of games here, logged a lot of big minutes, and he has played very well in conference play to this point,” Verlin said.
Mitchell and Allen combined for 38 points on the night, with Mitchell finishing with a career-high 15 points.
“I thought my team did a good job of finding me on our plays and I had a lot of good and open shots,” Mitchell said.
While some may see this game as a step back to start Big Sky play, Allen said he believes this can possibly help the team down the road.
“I think this is something to help us learn and grow,” Allen said. “Every game we are able to find out something good about ourselves and something bad about ourselves…we’ll for sure get some things figured out and make it a step forward for the next game.”
Idaho has nine days to recover and regroup before a matchup against the Montana Grizzlies in a rematch of the thriller in Cowan Spectrum from a year before.
The Vandals will play Montana Jan. 19th at 7 p.m. in Cowan Spectrum.
Stay tuned to Vandal Nation for live tweets throughout the game and a full-game recap following when the action ends.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cderemer_VN