PULLMAN, Wash. - Cold shooting and miscues early on defined a 76-64 road loss for Idaho on Wednesday at Washington State.
Idaho (5-3) fell behind by double-digits early in the second half and couldn't recover from a cold start, while Washington State (7-2) took advantage of every Vandal misstep to build a big lead, from which Idaho could not come back.
Washington State opened the second half on a 14-0 run, which took a manageable 36-28 halftime deficit for Idaho and turned it into a 50-28 hole just 2:41 into the half. The Vandals didn't help their cause early on, as back-to-back Idaho turnovers went the other way for Cougar 3-pointers to key the run.
"I didn't think we played hard," Verlin said. "That was the thing I was most disappointed in, was our effort tonight. I thought we didn't compete from the start."
The WSU lead reached 27 points at 57-30 at the 13:27 mark in the second half before the Vandals started to come alive.
Idaho clawed its way back into the game on the heels of an 11-1 run from the 9:18 mark to 6:25 to get within 15 at 63-48, and kept on the pressure to get all the way within seven points on the heels of back-to-back Jeff Ledbetter 3-pointers, the second of which made it 71-64 with 1:07 left in the game.
Idaho missed its final three shots and WSU made five of its final eight free throws to ice the game.
The normally hot-shooting Vandals, which entered the game leading the Western Athletic Conference with a .488 clip from the floor overall and .446 from 3-point range, were ice-cold during long stretches and finished the game hitting just .390 overall and .292 from long range.
"I thought a few of our players decided that they were going to try to beat Washington State by themselves and we broke down the offense and we didn't execute, for whatever reason," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "I thought we were playing pretty well, and then we did a lot of things that are really uncharacteristic of our team."
Kashif Watson was the only Vandal with a good shooting night, as he hit six of his 11 attempts and led Idaho with 16 points. Ledbetter hit 4-of-8 from 3-point range and finished the game with 12 points, but no other Vandal player cracked double digits on the scoreboard.
Idaho's two leading scorers, Steffan Johnson and Mac Hopson, finished the game shooting just 5-of-17 from the floor for a combined 15 points.
WSU guard Klay Thompson, who entered the game with the nation's second-best scoring average of 25.9, finished with 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting. DeAngelo Casto added a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.
The Cougars broke open what was a tight first half with a 10-4 run from 7:52 to 4:44 that turned a 17-17 tie into a 27-21 WSU lead. Johnson nailed a 3-pointer to break up the WSU scoring and get the Vandals within three at 27-24 with 3:41 remaining in the half, but the Cougars outscored Idaho 9-4 over the final three minutes to put Idaho in a 36-28 halftime deficit, the first time Idaho had trailed at the break all year.
Idaho will now look to regroup and get back on track for Saturday's home game against Eastern Oregon. That game will be played at Memorial Gym with a 5:05 p.m. tip.
