The Idaho Vandals lost to the Northern Colorado Bears 89-68 in a Big Sky matchup on Saturday.
Idaho was absolutely dominated on the glass, getting outrebounded by UNC 38-21. UNC limited Idaho’s offensive rebounding ability, as the Vandals only posted 4 offensive boards.
Both teams shot fairly well in the game, with Idaho shooting 26-for-56, and Northern Colorado shooting 36-for-63. Idaho was able to find their rhythm from range, as they shot 44% from three, which was the first time in five games that the Vandals have shot above 30% from three.
Idaho held two leads all game, which came with the opening basket, and a 15-14 lead early in the first. Northern Colorado was able to consistently match Idaho’s makes and capitalize on the misses, and they slowly grew a first half lead.
Idaho was able to make it close going into halftime only down four points 43-39, thanks to a late half effort lead by redshirt junior Terren Frank, who finished the game with 13 points on 5-11 shooting, and 2-4 from three.
“I just wanted to be aggressive on offense and defense and give us a boost the last couple games,” Frank said during the post-game press conference. “We went down and kind of got deflated and didn’t fight back. So, I wanted to be a person that makes sure that doesn’t happen to us.”
Idaho’s leading scorer was junior guard Quinn Denker, who had 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting, and posted six assists as well.
The second half continued to be a problem for the Vandals, as Idaho was outscored 46-29 in the half. Idaho’s shooting percentage dropped from 51.6% to 40%, and their three-point percentage went from 54.5% to 35.7%.
Northern Colorado had four players score a dozen or more, with junior forward Saint Thomas posting a near triple double of 20 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. Junior guard Dejour Reaves posted 18 points of his own on 7-for-10 shooting.
Idaho was able to go back and forth with Northern Colorado for the first eight minutes of the second half, but Thomas and Reaves scored 12 straight to make the score go from 60-55 to 72-58, and the Bears kept on pulling away, winning 89-68.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to work toward is making sure we put together a complete game,” D’Angelo Minnis said. “In the second half we’ve kind of seen that drop off, so all that has to do with is coming back to the film, going back to practice and just learning from our mistakes, learn from our breakdowns. If we just try to chip away at it every day by getting better we can keep it from happening.”
Idaho’s next game is on the road against the 14-7 Montana Grizzlies on Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. The Vandals will look to win their second conference game of the year and end their winning drought.
Bryce Norwood can be reached at [email protected]