The Vandals traveled to Boise to take on Sacramento St. Wednesday morning for the opening round of the Big Sky tournament. Idaho was down a grueling 14 points in the second half, but fought its way back to bring the score within three with just five seconds remaining.
Feeding off the energetic crowd of 1,403 at Idaho Central Arena, Rashad Smith lobbed the ball at the basket as the buzzer sounded.
The shot was just short.
Sacramento State punched its ticket to the second round of the Big Sky tournament and Idaho was sent home for its fourth consecutive first-round loss in the Big Sky tournament. This is the third first round exit under the helm of head coach Zac Claus.
“We want to win more games and we have made some strides but it’s still not enough,” Claus said. “It’s definitely an improvement in the right direction but we want a whole lot more.”
The Vandals kept it close in the first half as they tied the score 19-19 with 6:02 left, but allowed the Hornets to go on a 12-point-run. Trevante Anderson ended the second half with a three-point shot to bring the deficit to nine heading into the half.
The Hornets came out buzzing in the beginning of the second half as they lead the Vandals 40-26 with 13:44 left in the game.
Despite the 14-point deficit for Idaho, the team never gave up.
Anderson cashed three consecutive lay-ups followed by a deep three from Yusef Salih to make the score 55-54 in favor of the Hornets with seven seconds remaining in the game.
In desperation, Smith intentionally fouled Sac State’s Bryce Fowler, but he went on to make both free throw attempts and increased its lead to three. Anderson dished the ball to Smith but ultimately missed what would have been the game tying three-point shot.
Anderson led the Vandals with 11 points, while Salih and Mikey Dixon both scored nine points each. Idaho went 24-55 from the field and 5-17 behind the arc, while Sac State shot 22-52 and 5-16. Turnovers ultimately killed the Vandals as they gave up the ball 13 times and were only able to earn five turnovers from the Hornets.
Idaho finished the season 9-22 overall and 6-14 in the Big Sky.