MOSCOW, Idaho - The University of Idaho men's basketball team held off a late charge from Lewis-Clark State College on Saturday night and won its final exhibition game by a 70-59 score at Memorial Gym.
"I saw a little bit of everything tonight," Idaho head coach Don Verlin said. "I saw a team that played in spurts - I thought we did some good things tonight, and I thought we also did some things that were not conducive to winning WAC games."
The game got off to a sloppy start, as the teams combined to miss 14 shots and turn the ball over seven times, and only made three total field goals.
After senior Brandon Wiley earned a pair of free throws following an offensive board at 14:12, the Vandals took an 8-7 lead and went on to outscore the Warriors 25-12 for the remainder of the half. Wiley led all players with 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting.
Idaho took a 14-point lead after a pair of free throws by freshman Stephen Madison at the 9:19 mark of the second half, but LCSC responded by rattling off an 11-4 run over the next five minutes and cut the deficit to six points with 4:28 remaining.
Two Luiz Toledo dunks, a Deremy Geiger 3-ball and an emphatic fast-break dunk by Shawn Henderson over the next three minutes extended Idaho's lead back to 14 and put the game away for good with a minute to go.
"They gave us some experience of the game being close, of having to execute, having to make plays, and getting our guys a little nervous," Verlin said of the Lewis-Clark State. "I thought all those things were good things in the grand scheme of the season."
Wiley led all scorers with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Geiger added 17 on 5-of-10 shooting, with four assists. Henderson also had 13 points and seven rebounds to go along with his four dishes.
"I think first and foremost, it was good to see Brandon Wiley back playing and getting some stuff done," Verlin said. "I thought Deremy shot the ball well, and I thought that we did some good things on the defensive end early on in the game."
Idaho out-rebounded LCSC by a 47-32 overall margin, and hit 44.2 percent of its shots, compared to LCSC's 35.9 clip. The Vandals went 6-of-17 (.353) from long range, while the Warriors were 5-of-18 (.278) from 3-point range. Idaho committed 17 turnovers and had 13 assists, while LCSC earned nine assists, grabbed eight steals and turned it over 12 times.
The Vandals held a 15-0 advantage in second-chance points in the first half and a 26-9 edge overall. They also outscored LCSC 30-24 in the paint, while the Warriors had eight points off turnovers, compared to seven for Idaho.
With the trial runs all through, the next blip on Idaho's radar is Eastern Oregon in one week at Memorial Gym. The Vandals will play the Mountaineers in the second half of a doubleheader at 8:05 p.m. (PT) in their first regular-season game of the year.
