Victor Sanders, Idaho’s leading scorer, out with broken hand

Victor Sanders, Idaho’s leading scorer this season, will miss three to seven weeks due to a broken hand, head coach Don Verlin revealed on Tuesday.

Sanders slipped and fell on the ice on Friday night in Bozeman and broke his right hand while breaking his fall. In the last three games prior to the injury, the sophomore scored 89 points on 23-of-40 shooting.

The Vandals are already without point guard Perrion Callandret, the team’s second-leading scorer who has missed the last four games with a mid-foot sprain to his right foot. Callandret is out of his boot and doing light activities to test how the foot responds and is about two weeks away from a return.

The two guards combined to average 30.8 points per game this season.

“I think the whole thing when you have injuries is that you have to realize that nobody is going to feel sorry for you,” Verlin said. “You feel awful for the players, no question about it, because they work so hard. But no one is going to feel sorry for your basketball team.

“Like I told our guys, after this press conference today I’m not talking injuries no more. We can’t control injuries but what we can control how we play, our effort, our attitude and our preparation and that’s going to be our focus,” Verlin said.

Sanders’ 27-point performance helped Idaho pull off a 63-58 upset in Missoula last Thurday against the defending regular season conference champions. Idaho couldn’t complete the sweep without the presence of the Portland native, falling 70-68 at Montana State after holding a 10-point halftime lead.