On the back of an 84-59 opening night loss in the Battle of Palouse, the Vandals looked to rebound in their home debut. The Vandals were, however, unable to get over the hump, and they lost 76-73 to California State University Northridge, dropping them to 0-2. Moscow and the University of Idaho had been waiting for the debut of new head coach Alex Pribble ever since he got hired, and the Vandals’ hot start gave the fans juice.
Off a CSUN miss, junior Quinn Denker ran the whole length of the court. He then threw a perfect lob pass to junior forward Julius Mims, who finished the lob with an empathic dunk, putting the Vandals up and the ICCU crowd rocking.
The Vandals would push their lead up to 17-8, going on a 10-0 run in the process. CSUN would respond in a big way. The Vandals, looking comfortable, got overly comfortable, and CSUN went on a 12-0 run to take an 18-17 lead.
The two teams would go back and forth for the rest of the half before CSUN pulled a 38-34 lead with just under a minute left. The Vandals would respond with a jumper from senior guard D’Angelo Minnis to cut the lead to 38-36 and head into the locker room only down two. Both teams were efficient shooting the ball, with them both going over 40%. The Vandals were 13/31 from the field, 6/14 from three, and a perfect 4/4 from the line.
CSUN was just as good, going 16/36 from the field, 2/8 from three, and 4/6 from the free throw line. With the first half’s momentum, the Vandals came out blazing on both sides of the ball, with back-to-back threes by sophomore forward Tyler Mrus, who put the Vandals up 42-38.
The game would again be tightly contested, and the Vandals were in great shape until disaster struck. Mrus, trying to stop the CSUN offender from scoring, jumped up and landed hard; Mrus was down and badly injured, and the ICCU arena fell silent.
Mrus was helped off by putting no weight on his ankle; his injury is unknown at this time. After seeing their teammate injured, the Vandals had to refocus quickly. After the injury, The Vandal’s defense began to ramp up after consecutive turnovers. The Vandals led by seven with just under eight minutes to play.
CSUN would not go away and once again retook the lead. The nailbiter game was at it’s climax when CSUN took a 72-68 lead with 2:08 left. Mims made a basket, cutting the lead to two points.
Mims on the other end blocked the CSUN shot, and Denker found junior forward Kyson Rose, who nailed a three-pointer, putting the Vandals back up one and erupting the crowd once again.
CSUN would go back up one after a pair of free throws, and the Vandals had one last shot to win the game. A miss by CSUN with under 30 seconds, Rose rebounded and found Denker, who missed a potential three-pointer.
After two more free throws, the Matadors defeated the Vandals 76-73 and kept the Vandals winless on the season. The Vandals kept their hot shooting going as they went 15/29 from the field, 5/12 from three, and a perfect 2/2 from the line.
CSUN was not as good as their first half went 12/30 from the field, 2/5 from three, and 12/14 from the free throw line. Idaho was led by redshirt junior Terren Frank, who had an outstanding game; Frank finished with 18 points, going 7/15 from the field, 2/3 from three, and 2/2 from the free throw line.
CSUN was led by graduate De’Sean Allen-Eikens, finishing with 19 points. Coach Pribble thinks the team is close to putting everything together.
“I thought the guys did a fantastic job with their preparation, and young teams, inexperienced teams have to learn how to win; that’s where we’re at right now is we are competing hard, we’re trying to control all the controllables, but you got to go through some of these experiences and learn from them in order to become a better team.” He said.
Players have off nights, and Denker had one tonight, only scoring four points, and he turned the ball over six times, Pribble, however, is not worried about Denker.
“Quinn is going to respond; there’s nobody that feels worse about that last shot not going in than Quinn. He prepares, works harder than anybody I know, and he has an incredible work ethic; he’s one of the best leaders I have ever been around.” He said.
The Vandals will be back at home on Tuesday, Nov 14. To take on Evergreen State, hoping to finally get that zero out of the win column and get Pribble his first win as a Vandal.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected]