Idaho slips past South Dakota State

MOSCOW, Idaho – Perrion Callandret knew he was getting the basketball.

Trailing 75-74 and the clock ticking to under a minute remaining, Idaho senior point guard Mike Scott shot a glance toward his sophomore teammate, then looked away.

Messaged received.

Seconds later, Callandret received the ball and drained a 3-point shot that gave Idaho a lead it wouldn’t relinquish on its way to an 82-77 win Monday night over South Dakota State.

Callandret was just the player Idaho coach Don Verlin wanted with the basketball.

“He made it, didn’t he?” Verlin said of the sophomore point guard. “All my guys have a license to shoot. He’s worked extremely hard on his game. He was wide open.”

Idaho was chock-full of clutch in this game, something that’s been noticeably absent in many close losses the last two seasons.

The Jackrabbits held a 69-63 lead with 5:19 left when Idaho began its big-play comeback.

Scott one-upped Callandret with a 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer with 10 seconds left. Minutes earlier, Connor Hill hit a 3 falling away from the basket to bring Idaho to within one.

Before that, Sekou Wiggs and Bira Seck dwindled the six-point Jackrabbits lead with successful trips to the free-throw line. The win might serve as an example of how conscious the Vandals are about their past inability to close out games.

“Coach Verlin has us working on that a lot, finishing games,” Scott said. “More so finishing possessions, now that we’re getting ahead of it, finishing games and we showed that we can.”

The Jackrabbits presented a starkly different test than Idaho’s season-opening win over NAIA Eastern Oregon. They have been to the postseason the last three seasons, including NCAA tournaments in 2012 and 2013.

“Our motto tonight was be aggressive and I thought our guys were aggressive all night long,” Verlin said. “I thought it was just a hard-fought, physical game. It’s what you expect when you play coach (Scott) Naggy’s teams.”

Seck answered Verlin’s call for aggressiveness. He bodied up SDSU’s Cody Larson, a 6-foot-9 Florida transfer, all game and had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

His performance set the tone for a game that became physical and turned chippy, with officials having to warn both benches. But Verlin doesn’t think it got out of control.

“I was happy with my guys. I don’t want them backing up,” Verlin said. “If that’s what it takes as long as they’re not cocky or showing somebody up, I don’t think that happened tonight. It’s a matter of being competitive and doing what we had to do to get the win.”

Idaho 82, South Dakota St. 77

South Dakota St. (0-2) — Parks 6-9 4-5 18, Bittle 7-10 3-4 18, Tellinghuisen 2-7 0-0 5, Horstman 1-4 0-0 3, Larson 5-14 4-4 14, Flatten 5-11 2-2 13, Broman 0-0 1-2 1, Severyn 0-2 2-2 2, Devine 1-1 1-3 3, Doyle 0-0 0-0 0, Theisen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-58 17-22 77.

Idaho (2-0) — Wiggs 4-11 6-6 14, Hill 4-13 0-0 11, M. Scott 9-15 2-3 23, Seck 3-8 7-8 13, Mkrtychyan 3-10 0-2 6, Callandret 3-4 0-1 7, Sanders 1-2 1-2 4, Mpawe 2-2 0-0 4, N. Sherwood 0-0 0-0 0, Egbert 0-1 0-0 0, J. Scott 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 16-22 82.

Halftime—Idaho 41-36. 3-Point Goals—S. Dakota St. 6-19 (Parks 2-4, Bittle 1-2, Horstman 1-3, Tellinghuisen 1-3, Flatten 1-5, Larson 0-1, Severyn 0-1), Idaho 8-15 (M. Scott 3-4, Hill 3-8, Callandret 1-1, Sanders 1-1, Mkrtychyan 0-1). Fouled Out—Egbert, Horstman. Rebounds—S. Dakota St. 33 (Larson 10), Idaho 40 (Seck 12). Assists—S. Dakota St. 6 (Larson 2), Idaho 10 (M. Scott 4). Total Fouls—S. Dakota St. 21, Idaho 27. A—631.