Big Sky Conference

Sanders pushes Vandals past Bobcats in Moscow

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The second half belonged to Keljin Blevins. That is, until Vic Sanders snatched it away as Idaho continued affirming its status as one of the Big Sky’s top teams.

Blevins, Montana State’s bruising combo forward, scored all nine points of MSU’s 9-0 run to open the second half. He scored 17 of his team-high 24 points after intermission. His free throw with eight minutes left tied the game at 68.

Devonte Klines converted a layup with six minutes, 50 seconds left to give MSU a 72-71 lead at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. Then Sanders took over.

After missing his first six 3-point attempts, the first-team All-Big Sky combo guard drilled a 3-pointer to help Idaho snatch the lead back. On the very next possession, Sanders drilled another triple, giving the Vandals a 77-72 lead with six minutes left.

Sanders scored 12 of his 21 points in the final 6:19 of the game to boost the Vandals to an 88-78 victory on Thursday night.

Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3) rips through traffic of Idaho guards Chad Sherwood (14) & Trevon Allen (25) in 2017/by Brooks Nuanez

The win boosts Idaho to 10-3 in league play, now 2.5 games behind first-place Montana with less than three weeks left until the Big Sky Tournament in Reno. Eastern Washington handed Montana its first league loss of the season, 74-65 in Cheney on Thursday. Idaho is now 18-7 overall.

The loss drops Montana State to 6-8 in league play, 13-14 overall. After a 12-6 start that included four straight wins to begin Big Sky play, the Bobcats have lost eight of their last 10 with an increasingly difficult stretch remaining. MSU plays EWU in Cheney on Saturday and at Montana a week from then. The Bobcats finish with second-place Weber State and Idaho State in Bozeman the first weekend in March.

“I thought our guys fought their tails off,” MSU fourth-year head coach Brian Fish said. “We battled. We shot the ball well (27-of-60, 45 percent) and an almost two-to-one assist to turnovers (11-6), the ball movement was good. It came down to the last four, five minutes of that game and they kicked us pretty good on the boards (42-27) and they hit 3s out of it. They got 26-13 on second-chance points and that kind of flipped the game right there because everything else, we played our tails off.”

Idaho forward Brayon (BJ) Blake (4) in 2017/by Brooks Nuanez

BJ Blake, a legitimate candidate for the Big Sky’s MVP, helped the preseason league favorite Vandals win their fifth straight and their eight in their last nine with a monster double-double. The power forward formerly of North Idaho College scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

Blevins tried to go shot for show with Blake, particularly after halftime. The 6-foot-6 former Southern Miss transfer has been mired in a shooting slump for over a month but snapped out by converting 6-of-8 after intermission, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc. Blevins’ career-high 26 points helped MSU to an overtime win at NAU during the 4-0 start.

Blevins had converted 15-of-57 shots over his last eight games, scoring in double figures three times — 14 in a one-point loss at North Dakota, 10 in a 92-76 win over Sac State, 11 in an 80-77 loss four days ago to Portland State — but hadn’t been efficient.

Thursday, he converted 9-of-17 overall, including 3-of-5 from deep. MSU’s 7-0 run to start the second half pushed the Bobcat lead to 49-40 after entering halftime with a 40-38 advantage.

“He took it to the rim with authority and I thought he played really good,” Fish said. “I thought a lot of his looks were created off ball movement. We were a pretty good offense tonight.

Idaho guard Victor Sanders (11) looks for space vs. Bobcat defender Zach Green (0) & Devonte Klines (10) in 2017/by Brooks Nuanez

“We were 11-of-29 from 3, 13-of-17 from the (free throw) line so we got there. But what it really came down to was second chance points.”

Idaho notched 16 rebounds to lead to those 26 second-chance points. Blake and senior Jordan Scott each had four offensive rebounds.

“One thing each night keeps biting us and that’s because the league is good so if you give up one thing, you get exposed,” Fish said. “Tonight, it was second chance points.”

Montana State tips off against EWU at 3 p.m. MST on Saturday. The Vandals host Montana at 8 p.m. MST Saturday night.

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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