Idaho men’s basketball lost its fourth straight game after a dominant performance from the Sacramento State Hornets.
The Vandals (4-14, BSC 1-6) drop their sixth Big Sky game of the season in a 69-48 rout by the Hornets (7-11, BSC 2-5) on Saturday in California. This is the first time since the 2014 season Idaho has lost three-straight Big Sky games.
“It was just like we thought it was going to be, and we weren’t able to respond and execute the way we needed to,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said in a news release.
Idaho came out firing in the first five minutes of the game to take a 9-4 lead with 16:21 left in the first half.
But the Hornets woke up and never looked back beyond that point.
Sacramento State finished the half on a 33-10 run to finish with a 37-19 lead over the Vandals.
Idaho cut the lead to 15 around the 14-minute mark but unfortunately the Hornets were too dominate.
Sacramento State held the lead for over 35 minutes during Saturday’s affair shooting over 54 percent from the field. The Hornets out rebounded the Vandals 34-24 and scored 38 of their points in the paint.
Idaho finished the game scoring 45.5 percent from the field with freshman forward Jared Rodriguez leading the way with 11 points and nine rebounds.
The Vandals turned the ball over 14 times on Thursday, making it difficult to find any rhythm to force a comeback.
“Give them credit, they got us to turn it over 10 times in the first half,” Verlin said. “We did not execute and they were able to get a big lead.”
The Vandals will have to try to figure out their rebounding troubles in a hurry with Portland State being one of the better rebounding teams in the Big Sky.
“We know this is a young team, we know there are growing pains, but we need to stay positive,” Verlin said. Stay the course and keep working.”
Idaho will travel to Portland to take on the Portland State Vikings Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected]