MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho men's basketball team gave up an early second-half scoring run for the second game in a row and suffered the consequences in a 66-53 loss on Saturday against Portland.
Idaho (1-2) shot 32.7 percent from the field, while Portland (4-1) hit a 41.4 percent clip, including an 8-of-14 (.571) performance from 3-point range.
"It's our first home loss at Memorial Gym since I've been here, so it's a tough one to swallow," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. The Vandals were 9-0 at Memorial Gym under Verlin entering Saturday's matchup.
After a pair of Landon Tatum free throws pulled Idaho within eight points at 43-35 with 14:04 remaining in the game, Portland responded by rattling off nine unanswered points over the next two minutes to put the Vandals in a 17-point hole at 52-35 with 12:17 remaining.
Idaho used an 8-0 run from 11:12 to 8:52 in the second half to cut the deficit to nine points at 54-45, but the Vandals wouldn't get any closer than that over the final nine minutes of the game.
"I thought we had some transition opportunities and I thought we just didn't convert on them," Verlin said about the team's late-game offensive struggles. "We got some open looks and didn't knock them down. By that point in the game, possessions are magnified.
"I thought that game got away from us the first five or six minutes in the second half."
Senior guard Shawn Henderson led Idaho with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting, with a 5-for-6 day at the free throw line, three rebounds, three assists and one steal. Junior forward Luiz Toledo earned his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards, but no other Vandal hit double-figure scoring.
Portland's Jared Stohl led all scorers with 16 of 5-of-9 shooting, while forward Luke Sikma had a game-high 18 rebounds to go along with his eight points.
As a team, Idaho hit 16 of its 49 field goal attempts and went just 4-of-14 (.286) from 3-point range. The Vandals were 17-of-23 (.739) from the free throw line to bring their season average from the stripe up to 72.7 percent.
Portland outscored Idaho 26-22 in the paint, 12-11 off turnovers, 11-8 in second chances and 8-2 on the fast break. Idaho's bench, which accounted for 32 points at Washington State on Tuesday, had just 17 points against the Pilots.
"This team is working hard, and they're playing hard," said Verlin about Idaho's team growth. "We've got a lot of inexperience, and I hope it comes faster than it has so far, but we've just got to continue to grind.
"I told them in the locker room, I was happy with their effort, but I wasn't happy with the outcome of the game."
Both teams battled in the first half and exchanged five leads and five ties. Portland took control early and had a lead of as many as five points on two occasions. With the Pilots up 13-9 at the 11:00 mark, sophomore Kyle Barone sparked a 10-0 Vandal run with a pair of free throws to give the Vandals a 19-13 lead, which would be their largest of the game at 7:05 of the first.
The final seven minutes of the half featured four of the lead changes and four of the ties, with UP's Nemanja Mitrovic's last-second lay-up giving the Pilots a 26-23 halftime lead.
Idaho's next game will be the first of a home-and-home season series with Montana, as the Vandals travel to Missoula to refresh one of the oldest rivalries in school history. The Grizzlies and the Vandals have played 175 times dating back to 1916. That game will tip off at 6:05 p.m. (PT) at UM's Dahlberg Arena.
