MOSCOW, Idaho - The Idaho men's basketball team fell at home to Northern Arizona, 75-60 on Thursday night in the ICCU Arena.
Julius Mims led the Vandal offense with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. He was a force on the defensive front, setting a new season with five blocks and three steals.
Terren Frank pitched in 10 points off the bench on a 4 for 6 shooting clip, including two from behind the arc.
Tyler Linhardt was strong on both ends of the court dropping nine points and leading the team with five defensive rebounds.
Mims was first to deliver a highlight moment early on with an alley-oop slam set up by
Quinn Denker. Denker followed up the dime with six straight points to continue the early success and put Idaho up 11-8 with just over 15 minutes to go. From there, Idaho's second unit checked into the game and powered a 10-2 run behind seven combined points from
Kyson Rose (4) and Frank (3) to increase the Vandal lead to double digits.
The Lumberjacks flipped the script and went on their own run, using a 14-6 spurt to tie it at 29-29 with 2:56 to play in the first half. Five lead changes transpired in the final three minutes as the Lumberjacks knocked down a three just before time expired to carry a 38-36 advantage into the locker room.
The story of the second period was told by the Lumberjacks' ability to take advantage of the Vandals' continued slow second-half starts. NAU went up 11 (53-42) after scoring 15 of the first 21 points to open the period.
The Vandals were unable to counter NAU's offensive success, as they pulled away to earn a 15-point win.
The Vandals scored 10 second chance points off 11 offensive rebounds but it was the Lumberjacks hot stretch of shooting in the final 20 minutes that keyed the victory. NAU shot 55.6 percent (30-54) from the field, including 59.3 percent in the second frame.
Up Next
The Vandals head into the weekend looking to get back on track as they host Northern Colorado on Saturday, January 27 at 2 p.m. for Tribal Nations Night.
POSTGAME WITH COACH PRIBBLE
