MOSCOW, Idaho - The Vandal men's basketball team was cruising to what seemed like a big-time, comeback victory over rival Boise State, but once again, little mistakes down the stretch spelled doom for the Vandal men in a 77-67 overtime loss.
Idaho came back from an eight-point second-half deficit and took a nine-point lead with 4:49 remaining, but turnovers and miscues allowed the Broncos to close the gap, then culminated in Anthony Thomas' buzzer-beating 3-pointer to tie the game at the end of regulation.
Boise State (10-11, 1-7 Western Athletic Conference) jumped out with a 13-1 run to start the extra period and never looked back to earn its first conference win. Idaho (8-10, 1-6 WAC) lost its sixth-straight conference game.
"We just didn't execute," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "We turned the ball over on our press breaker a number of times and made some errors coming out of our press breaker, and we missed a couple free throws there at the end.
"We just didn't find a way to capitalize on the opportunities we had tonight."
Senior guard Kashif Watson led the team in scoring for the second game in a row, as he dropped in 17 points on 5-14 shooting, along with season highs in assists (6) and rebounds (8). Senior Mac Hopson earned his second career double-double with 12 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Senior center Marvin Jefferson blocked a career-high six shots and dished a career-high three assists to go along with eight points and five rebounds.
The Vandals hit .382 from the field overall, .333 from the 3-point line and .625 from the free-throw line. Idaho tied season-high with seven blocked shots and 42 rebounds.
Thomas led Boise State with 17 points on 6-9 shooting, while Ike Okoye added a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Daequon Montreal put in 15 points on 6-10 shooting. The Broncos shot .424 for the game and out-rebounded Idaho, 44-42.
Idaho went into the half trailing 25-22 after both teams struggled mightily from the field early on. The teams combined for just 22 points in the first 13:32 of the game before finally coming to live with six minutes to go.
Boise State started the second half by nailing back-to-back buckets and extended its lead to as many as eight points on two occasions, the second of which came at the 15:55 mark of the period. Idaho roared right back with a 9-0 run to take a 35-34 lead with 12:20 to go.
Five straight made field goals between the 9:39 and 6:46 mark of the second half built the Vandal men a nine point lead at 52-43. Turnovers and missed shots prevented Idaho from closing out the game and helped give the Broncos a 10-1 run to tie the game at 55 with 2:29 left in the game.
Idaho grabbed the lead once again with less than a minute to go, and extended it to three points on a pair of Watson free throws with 21 ticks remaining. Idaho appeared to be golden after back-to-back BSU misses, but Jeff Ledbetter missed a one-and-one free throw that could have put the game out of reach with seven seconds left, which set the stage for Thomas' shot.
