MOSCOW - Idaho's men's basketball team had a solid lead and momentum, but turnovers - forced and unforced - turned the tide for Louisiana Tech in a 67-61 victory over the Vandals on Saturday at Cowan Spectrum.

"You can't give a good team like that life," Idaho coach Don Verlin said. "This is a good team - they're 23-3, they've got the third-longest win streak in the country, they've got good players that are going to make plays, and you can't let it get to that situation and we did that tonight."

That situation was an Idaho lead as many as nine in the second half that slowly unraveled with a combination of turnovers and defensive miscues that led to open shots for the Bulldogs (23-3, 14-0 Western Athletic Conference). Tech Sophomore Raheem Appleby was the recipient of most of those looks and scored 23 of his game-high 28 points after halftime.

“We don’t execute fundamentally — we dribble it off our foot, hold it between our legs, dribble too far into the press, don’t get our shots up,” Verlin said. “The bottom line is, they got the ball to their best player and we didn’t get it to ours.”

Idaho held a 36-27 lead with 17:36 to play, but Appleby notched three straight 3-pointers to pull the Bulldogs within three at 39-36 with 15:39 left in the game. Idaho held on to its lead and extended it to six on a Connor Hill 3-pointer at the 11:21 mark, 46-40, but Tech answered with a 12-3 run to grab a 52-49 lead.

Idaho (9-16, 5-10) pulled within one point, 52-51, with 6:11 to play. The Vandals went 4 of 7 from the field in the remainder of regulation, but committed four turnovers and couldn’t get the stops they needed to close the gap.

Senior center Kyle Barone led Idaho with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, along with eight rebounds and a pair of blocks. Junior guard Stephen Madison added 13 points and eight rebounds, while senior guard Mike McChristian had nine points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Tech outscored Idaho in the second half off giveaways by an 11-0 margin.

“That’s the bottom line,” Verlin said of the turnover margin. “They get a bunch of extra possessions in the second half. They get nine more shots than us in the second half and that’s the game, simply put.”

The Vandals play at Idaho State next Saturday.

LOUISIANA TECH (23-3)

Kyser 0-2 0-0 0, Appleby 10-23 1-3 28, Smith 2-4 3-4 7, Anderson 1-4 0-0 2, C. Johnson 1-2 0-0 3, Hamilton 0-6 3-6 3, Gibson 0-3 0-0 0, Massey 1-1 0-0 2, McNeail 3-5 2-2 11, J. Johnson 3-3 0-0 7, Lewis 2-4 0-2 4. Totals 23-57 9-17 67.

IDAHO (9-16)

Habeeb 3-7 4-4 10, C. Hill 1-5 0-0 3, McChristian 3-8 3-4 9, Barone 7-9 5-7 19, Madison 5-11 2-3 13, Harris Jr. 1-7 0-0 3, Douglas 0-2 0-0 0, Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Kammerer 0-0 0-0 0, Faines 1-2 2-3 4. Totals 21-51 16-21 61.

Halftime_Idaho 30-24. 3-Point Goals_Louisiana Tech 12-23 (Appleby 7-12, McNeail 3-5, C. Johnson 1-1, J. Johnson 1-1, Smith 0-1, Gibson 0-1, Hamilton 0-2), Idaho 3-15 (Madison 1-3, C. Hill 1-3, Harris Jr. 1-4, Douglas 0-1, Habeeb 0-1, McChristian 0-3). Fouled Out_Habeeb. Rebounds_Louisiana Tech 34 (Anderson 7), Idaho 37 (McChristian 10). Assists_Louisiana Tech 14 (Smith 10), Idaho 9 (Harris Jr., McChristian 3). Total Fouls_Louisiana Tech 15, Idaho 17. A_1,132.