PULLMAN, Wash. - The Univeristy of Idaho men's basketball team put its talent on display Tuesday at Washington State, but unfortunately, the Vandals also showed their inexperience.
The Idaho (1-1) men gave up two decisive scoring runs in an otherwise well-matched game and fell by an 88-71 score at Washington State (2-0).
"Early in the game, I thought we were a little nervous and made some mistakes in transition defense," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "I thought we did a good job from that point on and played pretty solid, then we came out in the second half and got within 49-47, but then we turned it over six times and just handed them some baskets. That was the difference in the game."
WSU opened the game on a 17-2 run over the first 4:18, during which time Idaho shot just 1-of-7 from the field and the Cougars hit seven of their 10 attempts. Early on in the second half, it was a 15-0 Cougar run starting at the 16:10 mark that gave WSU the breathing room it needed. Idaho helped WSU along during those runs by turning it over seven times, which led to 15 WSU points.
Despite the fact that the two runs lasted a combined 8:58 and resulted in a 32-2 WSU scoring advantage, there's still a positive twist. In the other 31 minutes of playing time, the Vandal men outscored the Cougars, 69-56.
Senior Jeff Ledbetter had the top game of his Idaho career with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, all of which came from behind the 3-point arc. Junior Landon Tatum came off the bench to provide a spark with 12 points, two assists and one steal. Junior Luiz Toledo added 13 on 5-of-8 shooting.
The Vandals were 25-of-53 (.472) from the floor and 7-of-18 (.389) from 3-point range as a team. Idaho also hit 77.8 percent of its free throws and out-rebounded WSU, 31-26.
"We just couldn't sustain it," Verlin said. "This is a pretty good Pac-10 team that played five or six guys who logged a lot of minutes last year, and we don't have a lot of experience, but I liked what I saw.
"We're going to have flashes of good and some flashes of bad, but we've just got to get to the point where we're consistent, night in and night out."
The Cougars held a 44-28 advantage in paint points and outscored Idaho 15-5 on the break and 26-12 off turnovers. Idaho's bench accounted for 32 points, while the Vandals held an 8-7 edge in second-chance points.
WSU was led in scoring by Faisal Aden, who had 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Klay Thompson added 23 for the Cougars on a 7-for-17 shooting night. As a team, Washington State hit 57.6 percent of its shots and 33.3 percent from long range.
After WSU's game-opening run, Idaho used three separate 8-2 runs to cut the halftime deficit down to 43-38. Ledbetter keyed Idaho's rally by hitting four of his first five 3-pointers, while Tatum went for eight first-half points after junior Deremy Geiger got into early foul trouble.
Idaho will return to Moscow for its next game, a non-conference matchup against Portland on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Memorial Gym. The Vandals and Pilots played twice last season, with the home team winning each time.
