Vandals Dominate on the Road

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The men got it done on the road on Saturday night, topping Sacramento State 81-58. Idaho led for 39:23 of the game.

THE GAME

Much the same as the Vandals did on Thursday night, Idaho got out to a smooth start and was able to build a lead in the early going. With Brayon Blake and Victor Sanders battling foul trouble early, the bench stepped up again. Perrion Callandret had 14 in the first half, to go with five from Arkadiy Mkrtychyan and two from Trevon Allen as the Vandals took a 40-20 lead into the half.

Sacramento State came out hot to start the second, scoring the first nine points of the half. But the Vandals would respond to rebuild their lead and eventually get up by 21 at 57-36. The Hornets were able to cut the deficit to single digits once, but it was short-lived as Idaho bounced back to rebuild a comfortable lead. Idaho was strong at the free throw line down the stretch, cruising to the 81-58 win.

The Vandals won the battle of the boards, 36-27, and shot 54.4 percent (31-of-57) from the field. Idaho connected on 10-of-21 (47.6%) from beyond the arc.

THE NAME

Perrion Callandret . Callandret led the way with a season-high 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He also grabbed four rebounds and dished out two assists in 27 minutes.

In just two games coming off the bench, Callandret has the bench scoring 32.5 points per game. Prior to the switch, the bench was averaging fewer than 15 points per game.

THE NOTES

Idaho moves to 8-3 in Big Sky play and sits alone in third in the standings. Sacramento State falls to 3-7. Idaho is 6-1 on the road in Big Sky play. The six road conference wins are the most by an Idaho team since the Sweet 16 season of 1982.

Victor Sanders was held scoreless in the first half for the first time since December 31, 2015, at North Dakota. Sanders finished with five points that night, in a 74-71 win. He finished with eight points tonight, not scoring until 6:09 left in the game.

Sanders had scored in double-figures in 47 consecutive games. The last time he failed to reach double-figures came on December 3, 2016, against UC Davis. Idaho has now won four straight games when Sanders fails to score in double-figures.

The 23-point win was Idaho’s largest conference win since February 4, 2016, at Southern Utah. Idaho won that game, 68-44.

Chad Sherwood hit four 3’s on the night, and now has 152 on his career to move into fifth all-time. He passed Kris Baumann, who hit 150 3’s from 1994-98.

“I thought we were as good defensively as we’ve been in quite some time in the first half,” said head coach Don Verlin . “I thought we slipped a little bit in the second half but I was really proud of our guys. I thought we came out and we were the most aggressive team. We locked them up, they don’t make a 3-pointer in the first half and we hold them to 34 percent. And that was our message, going into this basketball game. We had to make them uncomfortable and I thought our guys did a good job of that.

“We have Victor Sanders and BJ Blake, both with two fouls what seems like before the 16-minute media timeout and I thought some guys stepped in and played really well for us. I thought Chad Sherwood was really good for us in the first half. Obviously Perrion Callandret was really, really aggressive getting his ball to the basket, I thought he played excellent tonight. A good team road win and I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. They battled, sat down and fought and did what they needed to do to win the game.”