SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Idaho (0-2, 0-2 BSC) men's basketball team fell, 73-57, to Sacramento State (3-0, 2-0 BSC) in a game of runs on Saturday morning.  

THE GAME
The Vandals jumped out to a 6-0 lead, jumpstarted with a basket by Gabe Quinnett. With Idaho leading, 8-4, the Hornets used a 7-0 run to take a 11-8 lead. With eight minutes to play, Sac State held a three-point lead, but Idaho responded with five consecutive points to tie things up, 17-17. The Hornets finished the half on a 11-2 run, taking a 30-21 lead into the break.
 
William Fitzpatrick hit a three-pointer for Sac State to get the scoring going in the second half, and the home side pushed their lead out to 15 shortly after. However, after Quinnett hit a pull-up jumper, Chance Garvin nailed the first three-pointer of the game for the Vandals and DeAndre Robinson made a layup to reduce the deficit to eight points, 38-30, with just over 14 minutes to play. The Hornets immediately responded with a driving layup by Deshaun Highler to push the cushion to double digits again. Despite a Vandal run in the final minute, Sacramento State would earn the conference victory, 73-57.
 
THE NOTES
Ethan Kilgore made his first appearance as a Vandal. The freshman scored four points, sinking a three-pointer late in the game for his first field goal.
 
The Vandals recorded 16 assists on 20 made field goals. Chance Garvin led the way with four assists, while Babacar Thiombane tied his career high with three. Gabe Quinnett and Hunter-Jack Madden dished out three assists as well.
 
Scott Blakney led the team with 12 points. He finished in double digits for the second consecutive game. He also added two rebounds and an assist in 24 minutes.
 
The Vandals were outrebounded, 35-29.
 
Idaho's bench scored 27 points, led by Robinson's 10. Sac State's bench scored 14 points.
 
The Hornets scored 24 points off 17 Vandal turnovers, while Idaho scored six from 11 Sac State turnovers.
 
Idaho shot 43.5 percent (20-for-46) from the floor, while Sacramento State was 28-for-60 (46.7 percent). The Vandals were 4-for-13 (30.8 percent) from beyond the arc, while the Hornets were 8-for-20 (40.0 percent).
 
This was the first time the Vandals had played the same team in back-to-back games at the same location since the 1975-76 season, when Idaho played at UTEP twice in two days.
 
THE NAME
DeAndre Robinson. Robinson reached double figure scoring in his second game as a Vandal. The junior scored 10 points while also hauling in five rebounds. He made two three-pointers and was 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.

THE QUOTES – Zac Claus
"We simply did not defend strong enough. They were able to get quality looks… We had some good spells. We started off the game early doing a nice job defensively, doing what we had intended to do. We simply could not keep that rolling over the course of 40 minutes."
 
"We have the utmost confidence in our guys. We talk about how there's always going to be those days when your jumper doesn't go down… We have to be great defensively, because there's going to be days like this."
 
UP NEXT
The Vandals are scheduled to play at Washington State on Wednesday, December 9. The Battle of the Palouse is set to tipoff in Pullman at 6 p.m.
 
Fans can stay up-to-date on all things Idaho men's basketball by following the team on twitter and Instagram, @VandalHoops.

For more information on Idaho Athletics, visit GoVandals.com.  Fans can also find Idaho on Twitter and Instagram, @Idaho_Vandals, or on Facebook by searching Idaho Vandals.