UCSB too much for Vandal hoops
BOISE, Idaho — The Vandal men saw signs of a young squad really coming together on Saturday night, but they eventually ran out of gas as Idaho (1-4) fell to UC Santa Barbara (5-1), 66-55, in the final game of the Vandal Holiday Hoops Showcase.
THE GAME
Much as he did on Friday, Trevon Allen led the way early. He scored 15 points in the first half, connecting on his first six field goals of the night, to help take the 36-32 advantage into the break.
Idaho came out strong in the second half as well. The Vandals picked up a couple of steals in the early going, including this from Chance Garvin that led to the Allen slam.
The Vandals would get up, 48-39, on a Jared Rodriguez jumper with 14:21 to play, but went cold from there. The Gauchos went on a 23-2 run to flip the advantage into their favor and went on to win, 66-55.
Allen led the way with 19 points, while Scott Blakney added 10 points. The Idaho bench saw some sparks from Garvin and Losini Kamara with five points each.
UCSB won the rebound battle, 49-30. The Vandals tied their season-low with just eight turnovers on the night. The Vandals also did an exceptional job defensively overall, holding the Gauchos to 36.7 percent (22-of-60) from the floor and 8.3 percent (1-of-12) from beyond the arc.
THE NAME
Trevon Allen . For the second night in a row Allen led the way for Idaho, this time finishing with 19 points. He also grabbed a career-high eight rebounds, dished out three assists and picked up two steals. He committed zero turnovers.
THE NOTES
Idaho moves to 1-4 on the season.
Garvin scored a career-high five points, including his first career 3-pointer.
Kamara also scored a career-high (5) and netted his first 3-ball of the year.
Idaho led at the half. The Vandals have led at the half in all five games this year.
THE QUOTES – Don Verlin
“First of all, want to give a shoutout to the Vandal fans that came out to support us at the Holiday Hoops Classic. Thanks again, we’ll be back in March and I guarantee you we will be a lot better.”
“This is a young basketball team that is finding its way. Vandal fans, you’re going to enjoy this basketball team. It may not be this year, it may be next year, if we continue to fight like we did tonight and continue to work like crazy. That’s the kind of effort that we got tonight. We built this program on defense and rebounding. Tonight, we didn’t rebound as well as we want but we did a very, very good job defending Santa Barbara.”
Next up is the final game of the Vandal Holiday Hoops Showcase, back up in Moscow on Tuesday night against West Coast Baptist. Check back with GoVandals.com on Monday for more information.
