Defensive leaks doom Vandals

MOSCOW - University of Idaho guards no doubt received an earful on the importance of guarding the perimeter before this duel of two-win, zero-loss teams in the Big Sky Conference race.

But during a stretch early in the second half when the Vandals were faring handsomely in that regard, Eastern Washington placed its flag in the middle of the Kibbie Dome paint.

That played as big a role as anything Saturday night as the Vandals lost a streaky offensive spectacle 89-86 and settled for a 2-1 showing in their three consecutive home games to start the conference season.

"I felt we were playing good defense most of the time," Idaho guard Connor Hill said, who scored 16 points. "But then they (the Eagles) would launch a shot up and they would go chase it and grab it and put it in. It was, like, demoralizing."

And when the Vandals patched up those leaks, others sprang open on, yes, the perimeter.

Tyler Harvey, who had entered the game leading the nation in scoring average for the Eagles, drained an especially long, comely 3-pointer to break a 67-67 tie with less than eight minutes left and later drove, dished and circled back to the arc for another demoralizer, a triple to push the lead to 82-73 with 2:20 remaining. He finished with 23 points, four-tenths shy of his average.

Hence a frustrating setback for the Vandals (7-7, 2-1), who showed their own, somewhat less diverse offensive flair, shooting 48 percent, but allowed the Eagles (12-4, 3-0) to connect on 53 percent and sometimes didn't have an answer for agile 6-foot-8 post Venky Jois, who produced 16 points and was a dominant force early in the second half.

"That was our adjustment at halftime, that we were going to run our defense through Venky," Eastern Washington coach Jim Hayford said. "And I thought he did a real good job of even distribution of finishing and making passes."

It's not that Vandals got schooled in the paint for long periods. In fact, they outrebounded the Eagles, both overall and offensively. But when they were slowing down one aspect of the EWU assault, they were lapsing in others.

"They're good offensively - they can really space the floor on you," Verlin said. "I didn't think we did a very good job of guarding them off the bounce, and that's the key to guarding them. Even though they can shoot the ball from behind the arc, you have to seal the gaps and you have to level your man off, and we didn't do a good job of that tonight."

The Vandals were resilient, erasing an 11-point deficit in the first half and nearly coming back from a 10-point gap with four minutes left.

Mike Scott drilled two 3-pointers and Hill added another to spur the late comeback, but Scott missed a corner trey in the waning seconds. The senior guard had swished a deciding 17-footer in a two-point win over Weber State the previous game, but this one wasn't exactly the shot the Vandals had drawn up.

"We had Connor lined up in the (other) corner," Verlin said. "They (the Eagles) switched off on that handoff and Mike couldn't turn the corner and couldn't get it to Conn. It's a play we work on all the time. We didn't execute it as well as we should have."

On hand was an adult-dominated crowd cited as 1,321, probably a few hundred fewer than that. As if the semester recess (classes are scheduled to start Wednesday) and foggy weather weren't sufficient deterrents to fan attendance, the game tipped off just hours after a shooting spree in Moscow left three dead and another hospitalized. One of the sites of the shootings was less than a mile from the Kibbie Dome.

"It didn't cause any disruption (for the team) but we all knew about it," Verlin said. "What a terrible thing. I feel awful for the families."

Idaho shot poorly in the early going and trailed 17-6 before getting a spark from reserve post Arkadiy Mkrtyuchyan and eventually tying the score at 25.

Mkrtychyan finished with 10 points for the half but just 12 for the game. Scott wound up with 15 points and five assists, but also an atypical four turnovers, while an often impressive Sekou Wiggs added 13 points and seven assists.

E. WASHINGTON (12-4)

Miljkovic 2-5 2-4 7, Harvey 6-15 7-8 23, Kelly 3-5 2-2 11, Brandon 3-7 4-4 11, Jois 8-11 0-1 16, Washington 1-2 0-0 3, Reid 0-1 0-0 0, Bliznyuk 5-7 3-5 13, Moon 0-0 0-0 0, Von Hofe 2-4 0-0 5. Totals 30-57 18-24 89.

IDAHO (7-7)

Wiggs 5-13 3-4 13, Hill 7-14 0-1 16, M. Scott 4-12 3-3 15, Seck 2-5 0-0 4, Mpawe 1-1 2-6 4, Callandret 3-4 1-2 8, Sanders 2-4 0-0 6, Mkrtychyan 4-6 4-4 12, Egbert 3-5 2-2 8. Totals 31-64 15-22 86.

Halftime-Idaho 42-41. 3-Point Goals-E. Washington 11-26 (Harvey 4-11, Kelly 3-4, Miljkovic 1-2, Washington 1-2, Brandon 1-3, Von Hofe 1-3, Bliznyuk 0-1), Idaho 9-19 (M. Scott 4-9, Sanders 2-2, Hill 2-6, Callandret 1-2). Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-E. Washington 30 (Brandon 8), Idaho 35 (Mkrtychyan 7). Assists-E. Washington 16 (Brandon 9), Idaho 15 (Wiggs 7). Total Fouls-E. Washington 18, Idaho 21. A-1,321.

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Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.