PULLMAN, Wash. – It was an historic evening for the University of Idaho men's basketball team Wednesday night at Beasley Coliseum. The Vandals upended Washington State 77-71 for their first victory over the Cougars in the past 12 meetings, their first at Pullman in 25 years, and coach Don Verlin's 100th career victory – and his first over Washington State.
“I couldn't be happier for our guys,” Verlin said. “We played extremely hard. By no means did we play a perfect game but we played extremely hard and we did a lot of good things and we found a way to win.”
In the final minute alone, Verlin saw the good and the not so good as the Vandals (3-3) committed a couple of turnovers and uncharacteristically missed enough free throws to keep the game a nail-nibbler. Enter the finding a way to win: They made their final five free throws in the final 38 seconds to secure the victory – the first at Beasley since a 56-52 win on Dec. 14, 1989, and drop the Cougars to 3-4.
“It's a big game; a rivalry game,” Verlin said in explaining the possible nerves the Vandals might have been battling during a stretch when four of five free throws didn't drop as the clocked ticked down to less than one minute and Idaho trying to preserve what had been a double-digit lead (70-60) with slightly more than 90 seconds to play.
“I'm just so happy I could be a part of it,” said senior guard Connor Hill, who joined fellow guard Mike Scott in finishing with 19 points.
Hill, like the rest of the players, wasn't born the last time Idaho won in Pullman and was a grade-schooler the last time the Vandals beat the Cougars (62-58) on Dec. 4, 2002.
Idaho jumped out to an 11-2 lead with a little help from just about everywhere. While the Vandals were shooting 50 percent from the field, the Cougars made just 11 percent (one of nine) in the early going.
As much as they were dominating on the scoreboard, the Vandals were controlling the boards with a 13-7 advantage at the second media timeout.
The Vandals then had a couple of slow stretches of their own – going more than three minutes once and then five minutes between baskets as the Cougars closed to within one, 32-31, at halftime. WSU outscored the Vandals 14-8 over the final nine minutes of the half.
Idaho opened the second half with back-to-back turnovers – with the Cougars capitalizing on the first to take their first lead of the game. That set the tone for a stretch of five minutes that featured three ties and four lead changes before Idaho went on a 9-0 run to gain some breathing room – and the momentum to carry through to the final buzzer.
In addition to Hill and Scott, Sekou Wiggs reached double-figure scoring with 12 and Bira Seck was just one point shy of having his fourth double-double of the season with 11 rebounds and nine points. Scott also had six assists.
