Recap: Idaho vs. UC Santa Barbara

Moscow, ID (Sports Network) - Deremy Geiger scored 22 points to lead the Idaho Vandals in an 86-83 triumph over the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament at the Cowan Spectrum.

Idaho (19-13) also got 20 points from Stephen Madison and 19 from Kyle Barone who also led the team with eight rebounds while Landon Tatum dished out 10 assists and was a point shy of a double-double.

James Nunnally poured in a game-high 25 points, Orlando Johnson had 19 and Jaime Serna had a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds in the losing effort for UC Santa Barbara (20-11).

Idaho jumped out to a 13-point lead, 43-30, at the half after connecting on an even 50.0 percent of it's shots from the floor including 4-of-12 from three point range while outscoring UC Santa Barbara 5-0 from the free throw line.

The Gauchos turned it around in the second half by improving to 61.8 percent shooting while the Vandals improved only slightly to 52.0 percent. UC Santa Barbara used it's superior second half shooting to chip away at Idaho's lead and came within a point, 81-80, with 21 seconds remaining. Madison then sunk a pair of free throws and Nunnally missed a three pointer. which was followed by a pair of free throws from Tatum that put the game out of reach.

Idaho outscored UC Santa Barbara 16-5 on points off of turnovers and 19-12 on second chance points while handing out 18 assists as a team. The Gauchos managed to hold a 37-29 edge on the boards.

The Vandals will face off with Utah State in the second round on Friday night.