Boise State looks to bounce back after recent road skid in conference play

Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — On Tuesday night, Boise State basketball led Wyoming 50-21 by halftime and looked like the best-shooting team in the Mountain West.

Three days later, it was nearly the opposite for the Broncos. On Friday night, at halftime of a road game in New Mexico, Boise State found itself in a 49-21 hole. Where the shots were falling against Wyoming, it felt like the rim had a force field around it on Friday night.

Rather than winning the rebounding battle by double digits like earlier in the week, the Broncos were outmuscled by the Lobos for every ball across the court. The halftime scoreline was a mountain far too high for the Broncos to surmount, ending in an 84-65 victory for New Mexico (15-5, 7-1 Mountain West) over Boise State (13-6, 5-3) in a key conference game.

“They were just going to get after us, and then there was blood in the water,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice told KBOI after the game. “And if no fouls are called, then they become more aggressive. And the most aggressive team gets the calls, and they were the most aggressive, most physical team.”

Just 11 fouls were called in the first half, and neither team made it to the bonus. The first foul on New Mexico was called after about 15 minutes.

The Lobos ended the first half on a 23-2 run across a six-minute span in which nothing was falling for the Broncos. At one point, a 3-pointer from senior forward Tyson Degenhart rattled off the inside of the rim twice but inexplicably bounced back out.

Though Degenhart tied as the Broncos’ top scorer alongside junior forward Javan Buchanan with 14 points, 11 of Degenhart’s came in the second half when the Lobos were far in the distance. Buchanan scored 10 of the Broncos’ 21 points in the first half.

“Once you get down that much, you kind of just have to turn the scoreboard off and just go play,” Buchanan said. “I thought we did a better job in the second half, but the first half was just too much.”

It was Boise State’s second road loss within a week to a top team in the conference. The Broncos fell 81-79 to Utah State last weekend in Logan, Utah.

The Lobos sit atop the standings, with No. 22 Utah State sitting at 6-1 following a shocking loss to UNLV on Wednesday night.

What went wrong for Boise State?

The Lobos’ home arena, aptly named The Pit, is considered one of the tougher arenas to visit in the Mountain West — last week, New Mexico easily handled San Diego State 62-48.

The Broncos visited an equally loud arena last week at Utah State. Multiple Bronco players said their experience with the crowd at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum would help them deal with the atmosphere in The Pit. But that didn’t seem to be the case, as New Mexico raced out to an 8-0 lead within the opening three minutes.

Boise State opened the game 0-for-4 from the field, and it wouldn’t get much better from there — the Broncos ended the night shooting 25-for-57 (43.9%) from the field and a woeful 5-for-24 (20.8%) from three.

In contrast, New Mexico shot 31-for-57, including 7-for-15 from three and a perfect 15-for-15 from the free-throw line.

“It took us a while to get going, and in a place like this … we gave them 17 points off turnovers in the first half,” Rice said. “You can’t (do that) because we weren’t even getting shots.”

The Broncos’ dreadful shooting night from beyond the arc came as a shock after they were 14-for-26 against Utah State and 13-for-26 against UNLV.

Buchanan was among the few Broncos who enjoyed a good shooting night. Freshman guard Julian Bowie also impressed, scoring all nine of his points in the second half on a 4-for-9 shooting night.