BOISE, Idaho – University of Idaho men's basketball overcame a feisty, hot-shooting Lewis-Clark State team for an 80-75 victory at CenturyLink Arena in downtown Boise on Wednesday.

Idaho (2-2) shot a season-best 64.4 percent from the floor and a blazing 53.3 percent from 3-point range, but the Warriors (4-1) converted 12 from 3-point range for a 54.5 percentage and hit 42.1 percent of their total shots.

“You have a shooter's chance and any time you shoot the ball like they did, you've got a chance to win the game,” Idaho head coach Don Verlin said of the Warriors. “They did a great job of executing their game plan and we were fortunate to get a win.”

Junior center Kyle Barone led all players with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and came up just one rebound shy of his third-consecutive double-double with a game-high nine rebounds. He also dished an assist and blocked two shots in 36 minutes of play.

Barone was just one in a balanced Idaho offensive attack that included 11 points, eight assists and zero turnovers by senior guard Landon Tatum, 15 points on 3-of-6 long-range shooting by senior Deremy Geiger and 11 points in 12 minutes by true freshman Connor Hill in his first action as a Vandal.

Redshirt freshman Matt Borton went 3-of-3 from the field and netted eight points, as well as a crucial eight defensive boards, five of which came in the second half.

The defensive side was a different story altogether. The Warriors made the extra passes early and burned Idaho with some open looks from 3-point range, then when the Vandals settled in on defense and got to the shooters – LCSC made them anyway.

“It's demoralizing,” Verlin said of the 3-point barrage. “We made some errors and that allowed some guys to get open, then they had guys who knocked down shots when they were guarded.”

The clinching stretch of the game came in the closing minutes, when Idaho trailed by four, 70-66, with five minutes remaining. Borton found a wide-open Stephen Madison and the sophomore's triple keyed a 10-0 Vandal run to put Idaho ahead for good at 76-70 with 1:54 to go.

Borton grabbed all five of his second-half defensive boards in the final five minutes and the Warriors finally cooled off from long range to allow Idaho to hang on for the win.

As a team, Idaho went 29-of-45 (.644) from the field, 8-of-15 (.533) from 3-point range and 14-of-23 (.609) from the free throw line. The Vandals grabbed 30 rebounds, dished 18 assists and had 18 turnovers, five blocks and two steals as a team.

“You look at our stat sheet from an offensive standpoint and you'd think we played really, really well,” Verlin said. “The big sore thumb sticking out there, though, is the 18 turnovers and not enough offensive rebounds (5).

“We did a lot of good things and we did a lot of things I'm not very happy with. This team tries hard, we've just got to clean up some executional things.”

Lewis-Clark State went 24-of-57 (.421) overall from the floor, 12-of-22 (.545) from 3-point range and 15-of-20 (.750) from the free throw line. The Warriors had 25 total rebounds, 11 on the offensive end, 12 assists, 10 turnovers and eight steals.

LCSC went into the half with a one-point lead at 38-37 after hitting six of their 10 first-half 3-point attempts.

The Vandals return to Moscow with their sights set on a Saturday matchup with Montana State at Memorial Gym. It's a rematch from last year's ESPN BracketBuster game that the Vandals won at Bozeman by a 65-50 margin.

“They're a good opponent, and we're looking forward to that game,” Verlin said. “We played really well up there last year in the BracketBuster and it's going to take another effort like that on Saturday.”

Saturday's game tips off at 7:05 p.m. (PDT) at Memorial Gym.