Boise State basketball: Men bounce back big vs. Fresno State, women’s win streak ends

Coming off back-to-back road losses against two of the Mountain West’s best, a week with no games and then a home tilt vs. a team in the bottom half of the league was just what the doctor ordered for Boise State.

The Broncos (17-8, 8-4 MW) walloped Fresno State at ExtraMile Arena on Saturday night, putting together an impressive offensive game — which included a massive free-throw advantage — to roll to a 90-66 victory and improve to 11-2 at home.

“The break came at a terrific time,” coach Leon Rice said on the KBOI radio postgame show. “You could tell we were a re-energized team.”

Four Boise State players scored in double figures in the first half, which saw the Broncos dart to an 11-2 lead in the first three minutes and steadily increase the advantage to 48-33 at halftime. Starters Tyson Degenhart (12), O’Mar Stanley (11), Max Rice (10) and Chibuzo Agbo (10) combined for 43 of those points, and Boise State shot 57.7% (15-for-26) in the first 20 minutes.

The Broncos, in a wild coincidence, also shot 15-for-26 in the second half, finishing at 57.7% for the game. They were 20-of-28 on free throws compared to Fresno State’s 5-for-12 effort, and they hit 10-of-25 3-pointers, with seven of those made in the first half.

“We didn’t settle for jumpers all night, we got the ball inside and got to the free-throw line, too,” Rice said.

Degenhart led the way with 24 points, going 12-for-14 on free throws. Stanley finished with 17, Rice 13 and Agbo 12. Boise State had a 35-24 rebounding advantage, with Degenhart getting nine to lead the way.

“Tyson goes for 24 and nine in 31 minutes, that’s pretty good,” Rice said.

Fresno State (11-15, 4-9) shot 11-for-30 on 3-pointers but was playing from far behind all night and had no defensive answer for the Broncos’ balanced attack. All nine Boise State players who saw action scored, and the Broncos’ bench came up with 18 points and six assists.

Boise State is back at home Tuesday night against Mountain West foe San Jose State (9-16, 2-10). Tipoff is 8:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on FS1.

Big picture for NCAA Tournament

So much will change in the next four weeks, but Boise State is finding itself on the right side of the bubble in nearly all NCAA Tournament projections right now. In two of the big ones, the Broncos are a No. 9 seed by Jerry Palm of CBS Sports (and listed as On The Bubble) and a No. 10 seed (one of the final four byes) by Joe Lunardi of ESPN.

Both of those bracketologists are being quite kind to the Mountain West, with six teams in (Boise State, Utah State, San Diego State, Nevada, Colorado State, New Mexico). The past two tourneys have seen four bids for the Mountain West — and quick losses by everyone except the Aztecs — and the Broncos are going for their third straight berth.

The conference tournament champion, of course, gets the automatic bid. If Boise State does not win that, its at-large chances could hinge on the final three regular season games: home vs. New Mexico and Nevada, and at San Diego State.

It’s probably not realistic that all six teams make the tourney, as they beat up on each other from now till March 16. And all of them have blemishes, although San Diego State has the cleanest resume, with no losses outside Quad 1.

New Mexico (20-6, 8-5), which is 3-3 in Quad 1 but has two Quad 2 losses and a Quad 3 loss, has an inexplicably high NET ranking at No. 24, despite having zero significant nonconference victories. Like the Lobos, Nevada (20-6, 7-5) has three losses in Quads 2-3, but is 5-3 in Quad 1 games. Still, the Wolf Pack are No. 44 in the NET, the lowest of the six teams, after Saturday night’s win at UNLV.

Boise State sits just ahead of Nevada at No. 43 in the NET, with a 5-6 Quad 1 record, a tougher nonconference schedule than almost anyone in the league, one Quad 2 loss and one Quad 3 loss.

(If you are one of those big college basketball fans who will never understand or believe in the many computer metrics and rankings, here are some fun tidbits: Alabama and Auburn are No. 5 and 7, respectively, in the NET. They are 4-12 combined in Quad 1 games. BYU is No. 10 in the NET; the Cougars are 3-5 in Quad 1 and 3-2 in Quad 2. Florida Atlantic is No. 27 in NET, with two Quad 2 losses, a Quad 3 loss and a Quad 4 loss. Wake Forest is No. 37 in the NET and No. 28 in the well-respected KenPom ratings. The Demon Deacons are 1-5 in Quad 1 and have lost four Quad 2 games.)

Colorado State (20-6, 8-5) is No. 25 in the NET after a 75-55 blowout victory Saturday over Utah State (21-5, 9-4), a Quad 1 win that moved the Rams to 4-5 in those games. They have a Quad 3 loss (at Wyoming in league play) but otherwise a very solid resume.

Utah State and San Diego State are now 9-4 atop the league, with BSU right behind at 8-4.

“You’ve got a jumble at the top,” Rice said. “As I told the guys, it’s great and it’s fun to be in a title race and be in the NCAA Tournament talk, but the only thing that matters is taking care of ourselves.”

Mountain West women’s basketball

NEVADA 68, BOISE STATE 65, OT

The Broncos used a four-game winning streak to climb into fourth place in the Mountain West the past two weeks, but a tough loss Saturday in Reno allowed the Wolf Pack (14-12, 8-5) to tie them in the standings.

Boise State (17-9, 8-5) took its final lead at 65-63 on a Natalie Pasco layup in overtime but didn’t score in the final 1:48, missing a 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left that could have forced a second OT.

It was a difficult end to a game the Broncos looked to have won — they were ahead 59-56 after two Abby Muse free throws with 4.3 seconds left in regulation, but Nevada’s Victoria Davis sank a 3 with 1.9 seconds left to tie the score.

Elodie Lalotte led Boise State with a season-high 19 points and Pasco added 16, her seventh straight game scoring in double figures.