MOSCOW - The Idaho men's basketball team kept its hot-shooting streak alive Saturday night at Memorial Gym, with a 76-54 win over Eastern Washington in which the Vandals hit 54.2 percent from the floor.

Idaho moves to 4-1 for the first time since the 1988-89 season, while Eastern Washington slips to 2-3 for the year.

Idaho fans gave the Vandal men a capacity crowd on the weekend after Thanksgiving, and the team responded with a shooting display. Idaho hit its first six 3-pointers and 66.7 of its total shots in the second half, then connected on a modest 41.7 percent in the second half.

"That was a heck of a win tonight," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "There were portions of this game where we dominated them, I thought.

"We rebounded the heck out of the ball. We out-rebounded them by 17 and we held them to 36 percent (shooting). I thought our defensive effort was as good as it's been."

In last year's 69-59 loss at Eastern Washington, it was the Eagles who were the assertive and accurate team. This time, the roles were reversed. Idaho out-rebounded EWU 40-23, dominated the paint points by a 30-10 margin and blocked seven shots.

Senior Steffan Johnson provided many highlights, as he knocked down five straight 3-pointers and finished the game 6-of-7 from long range. His .857 percentage from 3-point range in the game rates as the third-best shooting performance in Idaho history, while his six made 3-pointers are tied for third-most in Idaho single-game history. He finished the game with 18 points, two rebounds, two steals, two assists and one block.

While Verlin said the team's shooting performance was obviously a highlight, he was most impressed with the way the Vandals performed on the other side of the court.

"It's not our best game from start to finish, but from a defensive standpoint, it definitely was (the team's best game)," Verlin said. "I like the direction we're going. When you defend and rebound, you've got a chance to win every night out"

Eastern Washington's three leading scorers entering the game, Benny Valentine, Brandon Moore and Mark Dunn, scored just 14 combined points on 5-of-15 (.333) shooting. Through five previous games this season, the trio averaged 39.4 points on .471 shooting.

All season long, Verlin has talked about team balance, and that was apparent in more places than one. Of the 11 Idaho players who saw time on Saturday, six of them registered an assist, eight earned a trip to the free-throw line, 10 scored at least two points and every one of them grabbed a rebound.

Aside from Johnson, Luiz Toledo and Marvin Jefferson each added 10 points, while Toledo nabbed five rebounds and Jefferson, the Western Athletic Conference leader in blocked shots, swatted three more. Mac Hopson put in nine points, dished four assists and grabbed five rebounds and Kyle Barone led the team with seven rebounds.

For the Eagles, Glen Dean led the way with 14 points, but no other Eastern Washington player reached double digits and only one player, Moore, had five rebounds. EWU hit just .364 (20-55) from the field and was 7-of-12 (.583) from the free throw line.

Idaho started the game quickly with a 12-3 run over the first 5:25. After two Kevin Winford free throws brought the Eagles within 10 points at the 8:47 mark with the score 23-13 in Idaho's favor, the Vandals struck again with a 13-2 run spanning 3:42.

"Our defense got us into transition," Verlin said of the first half. "Steff made some shots and got us rolling there."

A 3-ball by Johnson with 1:33 left in the first half capped off Idaho's scoring and gave the Vandals their largest lead of the period at 22 points. Neither scored over the remaining 93 seconds in the half and the Vandals took a 45-23 lead into the break.

Jefferson opened the half with more strong play, as he snatched away an EWU pass on the opening possession of the half, took a charge two possessions later, then, after a Johnson 3-pointer, blocked a shot on the ensuing possession, which led to yet another Johnson long ball.

Idaho extended its lead to 28 at 51-23 at the 18:12 mark in the second and kept its lead above 25 points and as high as 31 for the next 12:20 until a Jeffrey Forbes 3-pointer got EWU within 24 at 67-43 at the 6:18 mark. The Eagles outscored Idaho 7-2 over the next four minutes, but it was too little, too late.

Idaho is now 4-1 for the first time since 1988-89. The Vandals have not trailed in a span of just over five halves of play. The last time Idaho saw itself behind on the scoreboard was at the 00:51 mark of the first half against North Dakota State on Nov. 21.

Verlin said that the team is excited about the hot start, but they know that it only gets tougher from here on out.

"As I told the guys in the locker room, it's on now," Verlin said. "We've got Northridge, an NCAA tournament team, on the road, and we've got a team that's knocking off top-25 teams left and right in Portland at our own building on December 6, then we've got Washington State."

The Vandals will hit the road again on Thursday to face their third 2009 NCAA Tournament team of the year at Cal State-Northridge. They will then host Portland on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. at Memorial Gym.