CHENEY, Wash. - The troubles continued for the University of Idaho men's basketball team as the Vandals committed 23 turnovers in an 85-56 loss at Eastern Washington.
The Vandals dropped their ninth-straight contest to fall to 1-10 on the season while Eastern Washington broke a two-game losing skid to improve to 6-6.
"I thought we had been moving in a pretty positive direction over the past couple of games, but we took a step back tonight," Idaho coach George Pfeifer said.
Idaho took an early lead on a 3-point field goal from Keoni Watson to open the scoring, but Eastern Washington answered with a 3-pointer to tie the game for the first, and only, time. The lead went to the Eagles on their next possession as they went on to build an 11-6 lead at the 15:26 mark. Idaho cut the lead to 11-8, but a 4:08 scoring drought saw the EWU lead increase to 15-8 with 11:34 remaining in the half. David Jackson hit two free throws to end the scoreless streak, but Eastern broke the game open with an 18-2 run to pull ahead 33-12 at the 4:38 mark. Idaho cut the lead down to 19 points on two occasions, but Eastern closed out the half leading 41-19.
Idaho couldn't find its rhythm in the first half, hitting just 7-of-21 (.333) field goals, including 2-of-8 from beyond the 3-point line. The Vandals also hit just 3-of-9 free throws and committed 11 turnovers.
"We wanted to try and tempo the game and we set up a box-and-one, but you can't continue that philosophy when you can't get back on defense. That was an Achilles heel for us all night and when you take quick shots it only fuels that fire," Pfeifer said.
The Vandals again scored the first points of the half to cut the lead to 41-21, but the Eagles then used an 8-0 run, including three-consecutive Paul Butorac dunks, to extend the margin to 49-21 with 18:15 remaining. The lead hit 28 points on one other occasion, but Idaho could only cut the margin to 20 points at 71-51 at the 6:39 mark. The largest advantage Eastern Washington would gain would be the final margin of 85-56.
"Two things happened to us in the first half that really hurt our cause. We had some shots right near the baskets that we didn't make and we were three-of-nine from the free throw line. If you're going to hold onto the basketball and work and work and work, you need some payoff from that. As the game started to speed up, they got their (scoring) average and we got ours," Pfeifer said.
Watson led the Vandals with 17 points while Darin Nagle scored nine points. Eastern Washington had three players in double figures, led by Kellen Williams' 24 points. Preseason All-American Rodney Stuckey finished with 16 points and added seven steals and five assists.
Idaho shot a much-improved 15-of-31 (.484) from the floor in the second half to end the game with a 42-percent average. The Eagles hit 34-of-65 (.523) shots, including hitting nine 3-pointers, and dished out 28 assists.
Eastern Washington scored 25 points off of Idaho turnovers.
The Vandals will have some time off before facing South Dakota State at home for their final non-conference matchup. The game will be played Dec. 30 at 7:05 p.m. at the Cowan Spectrum.
