After a week of game cancellations during the Fall Break, the University of Idaho men’s basketball team opened up their season with back-to-back Big Sky conference games against Sacramento State. Both games ended in losses for the Vandals as they broke their two-year streak of winning their opening game.
Dec. 3 is the latest the Vandals have had a start to their season since 1962 when they played Long Beach State on Dec. 3. Idaho lost Thursday’s matchup 77-55 and Saturday’s match-up 73-57.
Thursday, Dec. 3
In the season opener, Idaho’s senior forward Scott Blakney opened up the game with a three-point play as he converted his free throw after the foul. Sacramento State’s Bryce Fowler scored a three-pointer on the other end to tie the game.
Both teams would go back-and-forth for most of the first half as the Hornets led the game 22-19 with less than nine minutes to go in the half. The Hornets began to extend their lead as they gained a 10-point lead, 33-23, with six minutes left until halftime.
Junior guard DeAndre Robinson scored five points right after that, and it led to an 13-2 run for the Vandals as they went into the half with a lead of 36-35.
Into the second half, both teams would keep going back and forth until the Hornets used an 11-2 run to go up by four. The Vandals would not regain the lead as the Hornets continued to increase their lead for the remainder of the game.
“You have to give a whole lot of credit to Sacramento State,” Zac Claus, UI men’s basketball head coach, said. “They did a really nice job after we made an initial push there at the start of the second half. Their physicality at both ends was a positive for them… We’ll get ourselves regrouped and be ready to go Saturday morning.”
Sacramento State outscored Idaho 42-19 in the second half and outrebounded them 38-24. The Hornets took advantage of turnovers as they scored 26 points off of them while the Vandals were only able to score seven points off of 12 Sacramento State turnovers.
Sophomore guard Gabe Quinnett led the Vandals with 14 points, tying his career-high.
Saturday, Dec. 5
In the first half, both teams went back and forth like in the first game. The Vandals were able to tie the game at 17 after scoring five consecutive points. The Hornets responded by finishing the half on an 11-2 run, and led the Vandals 30-21 going into the break.
Sacramento State’s William Fitzpatrick hit a three-pointer to start the second half as the Hornets began extending their lead as it reached 15 points shortly after. The Vandals began to cut the lead as senior guard Chance Garvin hit the first three-pointer for the Vandals, Quinnett scored off a pull-up jumper and Robinson converted a lay-up to cut the lead to eight points.
Sacramento State bounced back immediately, and the lead was in double digits once again. Despite a Vandal run late in the game, the Hornets finished the game ahead by 16 points.
Freshman guard Ethan Kilgore made his first appearance for the Vandals scoring four points and converting a three pointer as his first field goal in his collegiate career. Blakney led the team with 12 points as he scored in double digits in his second consecutive game.
Idaho was outrebounded once again 35-29, and Sacramento State wase able to score 24 points off of 17 Vandal turnovers.
“We simply did not defend strong enough,” Claus said. “They were able to get quality looks… We had some good spells, started off the game early doing a nice job defensively, doing what we had intended to do. We simply could not keep that rolling over the course of 40 minutes.”
Robinson scored 10 points in his second game as a Vandal while also recording five rebounds. He also converted two three-pointers on two attempts.
This is the first time since the 1975-76 season that the Vandals played the same team in back-to-back games in the same location. In the 1975-76 season the Vandals played the University of Texas at El Paso in the same location in back-to-back games.
The Vandals will travel to Pullman, Washington Wednesday to play in the Battle of the Palouse against Washington State University at 6 p.m.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic.