Idaho men show grit down stretch in opener

Finishing off close games was not a strong suit of the Idaho men's basketball team last year, but seniors Stephen Madison and Glen Dean made sure that trend didn't continue.

Dean hit four clutch free throws down the stretch and Madison grabbed two defensive rebounds in the closing seconds, as the Vandals held off Western Illinois 67-63 in Saturday's season-opener at Memorial Gym.

"I was impressed with all the new guys coming together and closing out a close game like this," Dean said. "Going into our next game, we need to remember that we can close out close games like this."

Madison scored a team-high 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for a double-double and dished out five assists while turning the ball over only once.

"I thought Stephen Madison stepped up in a big, big way," Idaho coach Don Verlin said. "Scoring 21 points and getting 14 rebounds, that's about as good as it gets."

Making his highly anticipated debut for the Vandals, Dean scored 15 points including a 8-of-9 performance from the charity stripe. The senior from Utah wasted no time making his presence felt, draining a 3-pointer right out of the gate.

"It felt great to get that monkey off my back," Dean said. "To hit that first shot, it was like, OK, now I can settle into the game."

Facing a three-point deficit with less than two minutes left, things were looking bleak for the Vandals until junior forward Bira Seck caught a pass under the basket and faked out the defense with a head bob, pulling his defender out of position and allowing him to score an easy bucket, cutting the Leathernecks' lead to 59-58.

On the ensuing Western Illinois possession, Madison came up with a defensive rebound and pushed the ball down the court before dishing it off to junior guard Connor Hill. Hill had been ice cold from long range all night, but he chose an opportune time to hit his first shot of the night, draining a 3-pointer to give Idaho a 61-59 lead, bringing the raucous Memorial Gym crowd to its feet.

"He's a great shooter and you know, not every night is going to be perfect for him," Madison said of Hill. "Everyone knows what he can do and is going to play him close, but he made a great shot."

The Leathernecks missed a potential game-tying shot, and for the second time in as many possessions, Madison secured the rebound. He passed the ball up to Dean who was fouled and hit both shots, giving Idaho a four-point lead with 25 seconds left in the game.

Western Illinois was forced to play the foul game to try and preserve clock, but Dean and Madison were unerring from the line, making both sets of free throws to preserve the win.

Dean, Hill and Madison all started the game alongside Beck and 6-foot-10 senior Paulin Mpawe, but both big men ran into foul trouble early, possibly a side effect of the new rules put into place this season. Mpawe eventually fouled out of the game as did two of Western Illinois' bigs.

"I think we're going to see a lot of that as we go on," Verlin said of players collecting fouls because of the new rules. "I felt sorry for (WIU coach) Jim (Molinari) getting a few of those tough calls, but I think it probably evened out in the end."

True freshman Perrion Callandret, Dean's younger brother, went scoreless in his Idaho debut but came up with a pair of steals. Freshman Sekou Wiggs scored four points and Mike Scott and Ty Egbert came up with two points apiece.

Verlin said he hasn't decided on any redshirts yet except for walk-on freshman Chad Sherwood.

Idaho will travel to Oklahoma this week to take on the Sooners who are fresh off an 82-73 win over Alabama.

Ben Handel can be reached at (208) 883-4629, or by email to bhandel@dnews.com.