MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho men's basketball team was able to hold off the North Dakota State Bison Wednesday night in a 76-71 win at the Cowan Spectrum. The win improves Idaho's record to 3-6.
"I'm really proud of how we've stayed together and continuously gotten better," Idaho head coach Leonard Perry said. "We put ourselves in a position to win tonight and for the most part we executed the things we felt we had to in order to win the game."
The Vandals got on track quickly in the first half as they established a 14-6 lead with 15:56 remaining. North Dakota State cut the lead to three points at 20-17 with 8:01 left but Idaho responded with an 11-0 run over four minutes to build a 14 point lead. David Dubois recorded nine points during that stretch for Idaho. The Vandals would increase their lead to as many as 17 before the Bison closed out the half on a 7-1 run to cut the gap to 11 points, 37-26.
"We fouled entirely too much but we are small and undersized and that's going to happen," Perry said.
Dubois recorded 13 of his 17 points in the first half, along with five rebounds.
North Dakota State used an 11-2 run to start the second half and trailed by only two points at the 16:48 mark, 39-37. The Vandals were able to hold of the Bison and push their lead back to 10 points with 11:15 left in the game.
North Dakota State wouldn't go away as a lay-up from Andre Smith with 9:14 remaining cut the lead to three points, but the Vandals responded with a 6-0 run.
A three-pointer from North Dakota State's Lucas Moormann with 13 seconds left in the game put the Bison within four points at 75-71. Keoni Watson hit a free throw and a steal by Brett Ledbetter sealed the win for the Vandals.
"Defensively Keoni (Watson) and Tanoris (Shepard) did a great job with (Ben) Woodside in terms of making him earn everything he had," Perry said. "I thought all the kids played well and battled hard."
Watson scored 19 of his game high 23 points in the second half. He shot 65-percent (9-14) from the floor for the game and also added four rebounds, five assists and three steals in 39 minutes. Dubois added 17 points and a team high eight rebounds while Ledbetter and Shepard chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.
"I thought we were able to use our quickness on the offensive end and get some easy baskets, which is like hitting the lottery for us," Perry said. "I'm really proud of our team."
The Vandals shot 51-percent from the floor for the game and out-rebounded the Bison, 34 to 31.
Idaho (3-6) will travel to Portland State on Dec. 30.
