After trailing by 23 points at halftime, the Idaho Vandals men’s basketball team, with 11 minutes left in the game, was down by 12 and with the ball. Redshirt sophomore guard Kolton Mitchell drove the ball towards the hoop, then kicked it out to a wide open senior forward Brody Rowbury, who swished the three-pointer to get the game down to single digits.
That would, however, be as close as the Vandals got, and Idaho fell to the Wildcats 83-72, dropping them to (13-12, 5-7) and extending their losing streak to three games.
Head coach Alex Pribble shared frustration with the team’s lack of fight to begin the game.
“It’s a very disappointing performance tonight,” Pribble said. “Unacceptable. I apologize to the crowd that showed up and the community that has been supporting us, because that’s not what you’ve come to expect from Idaho men’s basketball. I feel like we’re building a program based on culture and toughness and competitiveness, and that’s not what we showed tonight.”
The Wildcats jumped on the Vandals early, and former Vandal senior forward/center Nigel Burris opened the game with a layup. The Wildcats from there went on a 5-0 run before the Vandals countered with a 4-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to 7-4.
However, junior guard Tijan Saine Jr. put the Vandals in an early hole. Saine Jr. was a nightmare for the Vandals all night, and he finished with a game-high 29 points, four rebounds and three assists. Four Wildcats finished in double figures, including Burris, who finished with 12.
The Wildcats continued their offensive barrage while the Vandals couldn’t find a shot, and after 20 minutes of poor basketball from Idaho, the Wildcats took a commanding 44-21 lead into the locker room. Weber State was efficient in all areas, shooting 14-28 from the field, 5-8 from beyond the arc and 11-11 from the free-throw line.
The Vandals were on the opposite side of that spectrum, as they finished the half 7-27 from the field, 3-16 from three-point range and 4-4 from the free-throw line for 21 first-half points. Idaho came out with a different energy and shots started to fall early, and by 11 minutes remaining in the game, Idaho had the lead down to 60-51.
Senior guards Isaiah Brickner and Biko Johnson, along with Rowbury and junior forward Seth Joba, led the offense, and the four of them were huge in the Vandals outscoring the Wildcats 30-16 midway through the second half.
Brickner, who had just two points in the first half, led Idaho with 18 points and four rebounds. The only other Vandal in double figures, Rowbury, had 11 points and five rebounds and is now just nine points from eclipsing 1,000 points. Idaho battled back, outscoring the Wildcats 51-39 in the second half and controlling the game for most of the half. However, that 23-point first-half hole was too much to climb out of, and the Vandals dropped their third game in a row.
Three games ago, the Vandals were riding high, defeating the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks on the road by a good margin. Now, three games later, they have lost to Montana State and Montana, blowing a ten-point halftime lead in the Montana game. Coming into tonight, this was a huge one for confidence and in the standings as they move forward.
“We have a process that we really believe in,” Pribble said. “Our guys do a really good job with that. The film work, the scout work, the practices leading up to the game, but for some reason, when that ball gets tipped right now, the competitive spirit, the competitive fire, is not showing itself. So we need to find a group of guys out there on the court that are going to compete at a high level because they know what they’re supposed to do, and there’s just not, the execution hasn’t been there.”
With the back stretch of the Big Sky slate coming up, the Vandals need to find answers quickly. The talent is there, but can they rediscover the competitive fire and execution that’s been missing during this three-game skid? Idaho will battle the (10-16, 3-10) Bengals from ICCU Arena on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m., in a chance to bring King Spud back to the Palouse.