CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

Idaho wins a thriller over Drake, 69-67, in CIT first round action

March 18, 2009

Box Score

Idaho earns first postseason win since 1982.

MOSCOW, Idaho – It wasn’t easy, but the University of Idaho men’s basketball team treated the capacity crowd at Memorial Gym to a thrilling 69-67 victory over Drake University in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament Wednesday.

The win is Idaho’s first postseason victory since 1982 and sends the Vandals to meet Pacific in the quarterfinal round Monday (March 23) at Stockton, Calif.

“What a game. What a great game. Lots of runs, lots of transition baskets. I thought we played one of our best games of the year from an offensive standpoint. That was a tribute to us passing it (balanced scoring). We haven’t seen that much zone lately, but our guys did a great job of executing their zone offense. I am very happy for our guys and our program,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said.

Idaho nearly squandered a 12-point lead in the final three minutes, but was able to survive a wild final 10 seconds.

A dunk from Kashif Watson gave the Vandals their largest lead of the contest at 67-55 with 3:22 remaining, but Idaho coupled three shots with three turnovers to allow Drake an 11-0 run to pull within 67-66 with 50.9 seconds remaining. The Vandals ran the shot clock to the end, but missed a 3-pointer to allow the Bulldogs a chance at the winning shot. Drake’s Craig Stanley missed a driving lay in with five seconds remaining and the Bulldogs fouled to send Trevor Morris to the free throw line with 4.3 seconds left. The senior calmly sank both attempts to put Idaho ahead three.

Stanley took the inbounds pass and Mac Hopson went for the foul at half court. The foul was ruled intentional, sending the Bulldogs to the line with 1.5 seconds remaining and giving them possession. Stanley hit one of two free throws, but Josh Young’s desperation jumper missed as time expired.

“I come from a system where you never foul, but I felt like Stanley had missed some free throws,” Verlin said of the final foul. “That is something we definitely have to learn from. That’s something we have to analyze.”

Five of Idaho’s seven players scored in double figures, led by Morris’ 16 points as he again had the hot hand from outside and finished 4-of-7 from the 3-point arc. He also came away with the rebound of the missed lay in late and hit his only two free throws of the night.

Brandon Wiley and Kashif Watson each scored 13 points, Luciano de Souza finished with 11 points on three 3-pointers, and Mac Hopson added 10 points. Wiley added eight rebounds, Hopson had nine assists, and Watson tallied seven assists and zero turnovers for the Vandals.

As a team, the Vandals shot 25-of-51 (.490) from the floor and hit 11-of-15 (.733) free throws. Drake shot just 36-percent from the floor thanks to a 10-of-34 (.294) performance from the 3-point arc. Overall, the Bulldogs attempted 34 shots from outside the arc and 25 from inside.

The Bulldogs were aided by a 38-29 rebounding advantage and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. The team also turned the ball over just nine times.

The game remained close early as the teams seemingly needed to adjust to the difficulties of shooting in Memorial Gym. The score stood 3-2 at the first media timeout and the teams were shooting just 25-percent shortly after. The lead changed on six consecutive baskets before Drake used a 10-2 run to move ahead 15-8 at the 10:53 mark. Idaho later charged back with a 10-2 run of its own to regain the lead at 21-19 and again led 24-22 as Morris nailed back-to-back 3-pointers. The shots sparked an 8-0 Vandal run to push Idaho ahead 29-22 with 3:34 remaining, but Drake scored the next six points to cut the margin to one. The teams traded 3-pointers in the final minute and Idaho held a 32-31 advantage at the break.

Idaho scored the first five points after halftime and held Drake off the scoreboard until two free throws at the 17:34 mark. Idaho led 39-33 shortly after, but Drake came back to tie the score at 41-41 with 14:59 remaining. The Vandals would lead by no more than five and held a 54-52 margin at the 8:52 mark before a 13-2 run, capped by Watson’s dunk, seemingly locked up the game with 3:22 remaining.

Young led the Bulldogs with 18 points, but was held to just four points and 0-of-8 shooting in the second half.

“I really thought the key to this game was Kashif Watson. In the second half, he locked (Young) down. That was a heck of an effort for Kashif. It has to be one of Kashif Watson’s best games of the year,” Verlin said.

Idaho joins Pacific, Belmont, James Madison, and Bradley in the quarterfinal round of the inaugural CIT with wins Wednesday night. Citadel and Old Dominion will battle for the final spot Thursday night.

“I’ve been to the postseason for the last 10 years as an assistant coach and I believe we only won once. Postseason wins don’t come very often. (The players) will remember this game for the rest of their lives. It’s post-season and they got a win. I’m happy for those guys.

“I told our players tonight before the game that all year we’ve earned the right to play in this game, but tonight they owed something back to the fans and to the people who helped us get to this game. The only way you can pay them back it to play as hard as you possibly can and I thought they did that,” Verlin said.