MOSCOW, Idaho - Idaho cruised to a big early lead, then held on after a furious rally on Saturday night to defeat the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers, 82-77, at Memorial Gym in men's basketball non-conference play.
Idaho (6-3) stormed out to an 18-point first-half lead with a 12-0 run against Eastern Oregon (7-4) and extended its lead to as many as 19 points on two occasions early in the second, but the Mountaineers scored 13 straight points to get within six at the 11:39 mark and the Vandals found themselves in a battle to the finish.
"For whatever reason, we didn't play our best second half," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "We kind of lost our energy a little bit. I'm happy about the win. We've had four games in 10 days - three emotional games - and on the road in two of those four, and obviously, the big one on Sunday (Washington State).
"This team might be a little fatigued, and I hope that's what it is."
Mac Hopson scored 16 points to lead four Vandals in double figures, as Marvin Jefferson (14), Kashif Watson (11), and Kyle Barone (10) also hit double digits. Jefferson also led the team with 11 rebounds to give him the team's first double-double of the season.
Hopson hit just two of his eight attempts from the floor, but his perfect 12-of-12 performance of the free throw line, which is tied for third-best in Idaho history and tied for the seventh-best single-game performance in the NCAA this season, made up for the missed field goals.
The whole Idaho team was solid from the charity stripe. The Vandals made their first 18 attempts from the line and finished the game 23-of-26 for a season-high .885 percentage.
Eastern Oregon guard Dan Stafford helped key the second-half resurgence by the Mountaineers, as he hit eight of 11 shots and scored 19 points in the second period alone, before finishing with a game-high 24 points.
EOU actually made more shots than Idaho did, as the Mountaineers went 30-64 (.469) from the field, while the Vandals were 27-49 (.551), but Idaho outscored Eastern Oregon 23-7 from the free-throw line. Idaho dominated the paint by out-rebounding EOU 35-21 and outscoring the Mountaineers 34-22 in paint points. EOU countered by turning 17 Idaho turnovers into 23 points, compared to just 12 Idaho points off 10 Eastern Oregon turnovers.
"You've got to give them some credit," Verlin said of the Mountaineers."They made some shots in the second half and did some things. I was a little disappointed in our defensive pressure and our intensity, but I'm obviously happy with the win."
The score changed hands four times in the first three minutes of the game, but three straight buckets by Barone, two of which were dunks, gave the Vandals some breathing room and they ran the floor, shared the ball and scored with relative ease.
EOU's Stafford nailed a 3-pointer at the 7:09 mark of the first to bring the Mountaineers within six points at 27-21, but Idaho rattled off a 12-0 run over the next 3:11, the team's eighth scoring run of 10 or more points this year, and stretched its lead out to 39-21 at the 3:58 mark before going into the half leading, 43-29.
Idaho's Jefferson opened the second half with a thunderous dunk, and the Vandals looked poised to explode yet again. A pair of Hopson free throws at the 15:03 mark gave Idaho a 57-38 lead, the team's largest of the game, but EOU went 4-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line over the ensuing 3:24, while Idaho turned it over on six straight possessions, and the Mountaineers cut the Idaho lead to six at 57-51 with 11:39 left to play.
Idaho responded with a quick 12-4 run to extend its lead back to eight, but EOU didn't quit, and again whittled a Vandal lead down to six, this time with 1:31 left on the clock and the score 75-69. The Mountaineers resorted to fouling and Idaho made seven of its final 10 attempts from the stripe to withstand the charge.
The Vandals will now have 10 days to prepare for a familiar foe in Portland, which Idaho already defeated, 68-48 in Memorial Gym, on Dec. 6. The two teams will clash again on Dec. 22 at Portland at 7 p.m.
Key during the 10-day break, Verlin said, will be getting forwards Brandon Wiley and Luiz Toledo, both of whom missed the last two games, healthy, as well as trying to clean up the turnover troubles that have plagued the Vandals early in the season.
