MOSCOW, Idaho – Washington State and Idaho have met on the basketball court every year since 1906, but few of their games had a more thrilling finish than Wednesday night’s contest.
Junior point guard Reggie Moore ignored leaping defender Deremy Geiger and buried a 19-foot jumper from the left side with nine-tenths of a second remaining to give WSU a 66-64 victory.
When Idaho’s desperation shot from center court missed everything, Moore made his way through the handshake line, then trotted off the court with his arms raised high as WSU fans chanted “Reggie! Reggie! Reggie!”
“It’s kind of surreal,” Moore said. “My mom was here, my aunt was here, my best friend’s here. It’s good to do it in front of them.”
Moore scored a season-high 15 points for the second straight game. After piling up nine turnovers in Saturday’s rout of Eastern Washington, Moore made three turnovers in the first half Wednesday, but none the rest of the way.
“He played with confidence,” WSU coach Ken Bone said. “It was good to have the ball in his hands at the very end.”
“He’s an excellent player ... an all-Pac-12-type guy,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “He made a heck of a shot for them to win the game.”
Idaho shot 31 percent from the field in the first half and trailed at the break, 35-25. The Vandals, ranked 18th in the nation in field-goal shooting percentage through Tuesday at 49.7, shot 60 percent in the second half (44.4 for the game) and outscored the Cougars after halftime, 39-31.
“They played extremely well in the second half,” Bone said.
“We showed a lot of heart and a lot of guts coming back against a very well-coached team,” Verlin said.
Bone said the Vandals (4-4) played with more energy than Washington State (5-4) in the second half. Bone was particularly impressed with the energy and production of Idaho senior forward Djim Bandoumel.
Verlin, disappointed with Bandoumel’s lackluster work in practice, left the part-time starter at home when Idaho won at UC Davis on Saturday. Bandoumel never left the bench in the first half Wednesday, but he finished with nine points in 17 minutes.
“He tore us up,” Bone said.
The Cougars held Idaho’s top two scorers, guard Geiger and center Kyle Barone, to eight points apiece. Stephen Madison led Idaho with 18 points.
The hard-fought nonconference game drew an enthusiastic crowd of 3,321 in the Cowan Spectrum, the basketball facility inside the Kibbie Dome football stadium.
FAST BREAKS
Brock Motum had 12 points and three rebounds for WSU. ... The Cougars received strong bench play at times from Dexter Drew-Kernich, Patrick Simon, D.J. Shelton (back from a one-game suspension) and Will DiIorio. ... The WSU-Idaho series is the sixth-longest continuous series in college basketball, and the longest west of the Mississippi. ... The Cougars return home to face Santa Clara at 1 p.m. Sunday (no TV).
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