MOSCOW, Idaho—The Idaho Vandals could not weather the storm that was the first half on Saturday night. Northern Kentucky walked off the court at Memorial Gym with a 79-74 win. Idaho's offense struggled in the opening period making just nine field goals on its 28 attempts.
“We have to give them [NKU] credit,” head coach Don Verlin commented following the game. “They came in and shot 57 percent and drove the lane to get to the basket. We are putting way too much pressure on our offense. We just did not defend well enough tonight.”
Perrion Callandret recorded a new career-high of 11 points in 14 minutes off the bench for Idaho in the first half. The sophomore hit four of the team's nine field goals in the half. Sekou Wiggs totaled six points in the first half on 2-of-8 shooting. On the other side of the court, NKU shot 14-for-26 (53.8 percent) in the opening half.
NKU (3-3) opened the second half with a 39-28 point lead. A Jalen Billups layup extended the lead to 12 59 seconds into the half. By the 17:44 mark the Norse had extended the lead to 14 at 47-33, their largest of the game. Wiggs and Bira Seck would each get baskets to fall to cut the lead to 12, but each time NKU responded. A Tayler Persons layup with 16:40 to play put NKU back up by 14.
Idaho (2-3) put together a quick 8-0 run over the next 1:53, cutting the NKU lead to 6 with 13:38 to go. Connor Hill ignited the offense with five of the eight points. Ty Egbert and Seck combined for the remaining three. A Seck layup with 12:57 to play would get Idaho even closer at 53-47. The Silver and Gold outscored NKU 9-8 over the next six minutes to cut the Nores lead to 5, Hill and Callandret both hit key shots in the span to help the Vandals. Sensing the shift in moment the Vandal faithful was brought to life and with the clock ticking down to 3:15 Hill drilled a three to cut NKU's lead to 67-66. Mike Scott would tie the game for the first time at 68 with 2:33 to play. Unfortunately for Idaho, NKU stood its ground, closing the half on an 11-6 run.
“We started playing a little tougher in the second half and ended up getting some stops,” Verlin said. “We just did a better job of staying between our man and the basket. Simply put, we did not do a very good job of that in the first half. Once we started to do that we were able to get out on the fast break and hit some shots.”
Idaho outscored NKU 46-40 in the final 20 minutes. Hill scored 19 points in the half, finishing with a team-high 22. Seck totaled a double-double in the half alone with 10 points and 10 boards. The senior from Senegal closed out the night with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Callandret and Wiggs finished with 15 and 14, respectively.
The Vandals return to action on Dec. 3 as they travel across state boarders to faceoff with Washington State. Game time is set for 7 p.m. PT and will be available on Pac-12 Washington.
