Following their loss to the San Diego Toreros on Nov. 24, the Vandals (4-5) found themselves in crisis mode, as they were three weeks into the season and still without a victory against an NCAA opponent.
The team had just dropped two winnable games at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on back-to-back days and desperately needed to bounce back in the upcoming week. The Vandals did just that, first by soundly defeating UC Riverside in Moscow, and then, winning a huge road game against the Kansas City Kangaroos (4-6), 82-77.
This win marks an important milestone for the Vandals as they continue their season, building confidence and momentum. The game took place at the Swinney Center and was part of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, which is currently scored at 5-4 in favor of the Summit League.
Prior to the season, head coach Alex Pribble said that in order to succeed, his team would need to play better in close games. Though it took a moment for the newly assembled team to build chemistry, Idaho took care of business, winning a nail-biter on the road.
Though Idaho has struggled early in games thus far in the season, the Vandals completely flipped the script and came out swinging. Jojo Anderson nailed a three-pointer on the game’s first possession, which began an 11-0 run, capped by an alley-oop from Anderson to Julius “Juice” Mims.
Anderson finished with 14 points, four assists and three rebounds. Mims scored 11 of his own, snagging seven rebounds along the way.
The Vandals took a 14-2 lead less than three minutes into the game, which allowed them to be in control for the remainder of the half. They maintained that 12-point lead going into the break, 43-31.
What helped Idaho prevail unscathed in this matchup was the scoring production that nearly the entire team displayed. Having five scorers in double-digits, along with a 45.5% team shooting percentage from beyond the arc proved to be the winning formula in Wednesday’s game.
Jack Payne led the way with a career-high of 17 points. He also added eight rebounds, four assists and four steals. Kristian Gonzalez and Tyler Linhardt took more shots than anyone else on the team, scoring 16 and 15, respectively.
The Kangaroos entered the game with four players averaging double-digits, and all four of them finished with double-digits against Idaho, led by a 22-point performance from Anderson Kopp. However, the rest of the roster went stagnant offensively and the team suffered its third single-digit loss in the last two weeks.
The Vandals continued their aggressive offensive pace in the second half, going into the final media timeout with a 75-60 lead. Evidently, whatever the message was in the Kansas City huddle appeared to have impacted the players, as they went on a 17-5 run in a four-minute span.
Kasheem Grady Jr. made a three-point shot with three seconds remaining to cut the deficit to three, but that was the closest that the Kangaroos would pull to making the comeback, finishing the game without having ever led.
Idaho’s next game will be on Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. in Corvallis against the Oregon State Beavers (5-2).