BSU basketball game with Portland on Saturday postponed due to travel conditions
The matchup between the Boise State and Portland men’s basketball teams on Saturday at Taco Bell Arena was postponed Friday.
The Pilots were scheduled to fly out at 3:15 p.m. on Friday, but the flight was canceled due to poor weather conditions in Portland. The team was rescheduled for a 5:45 p.m. flight, but that too was canceled.
Boise State’s next scheduled game is Dec. 18 against Idaho State in Boise, meaning the Broncos will go 13 days without playing a game.
“Best laid plans, I guess,” head coach Leon Rice said. “I’ve never had this happen before. It just, you just have to deal with what’s thrown at us. And this is something that’s thrown at us.”
The teams will attempt to reschedule the game for later this season. If they cannot find a date, fans who have tickets will be allowed to exchange them for tickets to another game. The teams were unable to push the game to Sunday because comedian Jim Gaffigan has a show at Taco Bell Arena.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this causes all of our fans,” Boise State Athletic Director Curt Apsey said in a statement. “We exhausted all options available to us in the Treasure Valley this weekend. We will do our best to reschedule for a later date this season.”
Portland features a dynamic backcourt with guards Alec Wintering (22.3 points per game) and Jazz Johnson (18.5). The opportunity to play another game against a quality opponent would have been beneficial, according to Rice.
Boise State is 5-4, Portland is 5-3 with a win over San Jose State and losses to UCLA and Colorado.
“You don’t want guys to lose games or to lose opportunities,” Rice said. “You want to do everything you can not to lose them.”
Rice said the team will do a bit of running Saturday.
“We need to run a little bit. We had planned on taking some days off for finals right after this game,” Rice said. “We need to get up and down tomorrow.”
Michael Katz: 208-377-6444, @MichaelLKatz
This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "BSU basketball game with Portland on Saturday postponed due to travel conditions."