BOISE, Idaho - Idaho protected the ball, played solid defense and made half its shots on Tuesday, as the Vandals rolled past Lewis-Clark State 71-52 in the team's final non-conference game of the year.
Senior guard Mac Hopson led the way with a double-double on 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, along with four rebounds and three steals. Seniors Steffan Johnson and Luciano de Souza contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively, while 10 total Idaho players scored.
The Vandals jumped out to a big first-half lead on the heels of 51.9 percent shooting and stifling defense that forced nine turnovers and held LCSC to 29.2 percent shooting. Idaho finished the game .500 from the field, while LCSC went .347 overall.
"I thought we played pretty well at times," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "In the first half, I thought we played very well, especially defensively."
Both Idaho and LCSC got off to a slow start in the second half, as each team missed four of its first five shots in the period, but Idaho caught fire again and extended its lead to as many as 21 points by sharing the ball and creating easy layups.
"I thought we rebounded the ball well and probably the thing I liked best was 17 assists, seven turnovers," Verlin said. "We haven't had a single-digit turnover game this year, so I was very happy with that part of the game."
Idaho out-rebounded Lewis-Clark State by a 42-32 margin, outscored the Warriors 15-3 on points off turnovers and 17-8 on second-chance points. The Vandals also scored 26 points in the paint while giving up just 14.
Verlin said that he was happy with the turnout of 4,111 fans at the game and said that a similar kind of neutral site game in Boise is something he'd like to see the team work out every year.
"It was a great environment tonight," Verlin said. "There were 3,000 or 4,000 fans here tonight and it was great to come down here and play for the southern Vandals.
"I'd love to play here on the break, when our students aren't on campus. I would love to play here (Qwest Arena). This is a great facility, and they treated us really, really well."
With its opening stretch of non-conference play behind it, Idaho will now look forward to a tough test in a Western Athletic Conference road trip to Hawai'i on Jan. 2 and San Jose State on Jan. 4.
