Boise State men suffer ‘embarrassing’ home loss to Colorado State; women win in OT
Justinian Jessup hardly looked up from the stat sheet sitting on the table in front of him during postgame interviews.
Another brutal Boise State loss brought out some brutal honesty from the junior guard.
“It is for sure a low point. It sucks, man,” Jessup said. “It’s embarrassing to go out there and play like that in front of the fans who come out and see us. It’s disappointing.”
Playing in front of 5,152 fans at Taco Bell Arena, the Broncos continued their tumble down the Mountain West Conference standings with a 76-62 loss to Colorado State on Wednesday night. It was the Rams’ first win in Boise since 1991.
The two teams entered the game tied for seventh in the standings, and Boise State (11-17 overall, 6-9 Mountain West) could have assured itself the head-to-head tiebreaker with the win. Instead, the Broncos lost their seventh home game of the season, which is the most in nine years.
Boise State has three games remaining in the season and is guaranteed to finish the regular season with a losing record for the first time since 2011-12.
“I think that was the perfect word. Embarrassing. That’s really what it was,” Boise State junior Alex Hobbs said. “We’ve had great practices and we come out here and we embarrass ourselves. We don’t do the things that we’re doing in practice. We don’t do the things that have brought us success in the past, and that’s me included.
“We’re doing things uncharacteristic to Boise State basketball, and it’s on us to fix it. There’s nothing the coaches can do. The coaches keep doing a great job and putting us in a position to be successful, and it’s on us to take that and really put it into play when we get out there.”
Jessup played all 40 minutes of Wednesday’s game, scoring a career-high 25 points with four rebounds, four assists and three steals. He finished 4-for-9 from 3-point range in an otherwise abysmal night for the Broncos from beyond the arc. Boise State’s combined 5-for-27 performance (18.5 percent) was its second-lowest 3-point percentage of the season.
“When you’re the team we are this year, you have zero margin for error,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “If you play a ‘B’ game, pretty much you’re not going to win. If you play a ‘C’ game, you might lose badly, and if you play a ‘D’ game — and we played a ‘D’ half, I know that, offensively — it’s going to probably be a rough night. And we probably played one of our worst ones tonight.”
In a span of less than 4 minutes early in the first half, Jessup scored 10 straight points. He was the only Bronco to find an offensive rhythm in the first half, however, as the rest of the team combined to go 7-for-25 (28 percent) from the floor, resulting in a 33-26 deficit at the break.
The damage only got worse in the second half. The Rams (12-16, 7-8) ran up their lead to as many as 17 points. CSU shot 70.8 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes and 58.2 percent for the game — a season high by a Boise State opponent.
“They’re not going to lay down their rifles and walk away. They’re going to keep fighting, and as coaches we’ll keep fighting for them,” Rice said. “I just want to give them the right ending to this and help them do it. That’s why you saw different lineups tonight. You saw us trying some different things.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We’re not going to do that. We’ve got to try to find the right magic.”
Next up for the Broncos is a rematch against UNLV, which topped Boise State 83-72 on Feb. 6. Saturday’s game tips off at 8:30 p.m. MT at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and will be televised on the CBS Sports Network.
Women: Boise State 72, Colorado State 63 (OT)
Playing against last-place Colorado State, the first-place Boise State women’s basketball team was on the verge of disaster Wednesday night at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The Broncos went more than 7 minutes without a basket in an eight-point fourth quarter, allowing the Rams to come back from a 13-point deficit and force overtime.
But the Broncos (22-4, 13-2 MW) denied the Rams’ upset bid with a 10-for-12 showing from the free-throw line in overtime. Senior Marta Hermida led the way with a 6-for-6 performance at the line in the extra frame and totaled 17 points and nine boards.
It was Boise State’s first overtime game since a 73-68 win over Seattle University on Nov. 20, 2016, and maintains the Broncos’ one-game lead over New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference standings with three regular-season games to go.
Junior guard Braydey Hodgins tied the program record with her sixth consecutive 20-point game. Hodgins made exactly 20 points to match Michelle Schultz, who had six straight 20-point games from Dec. 31, 1995 to Jan. 20, 1996.
Boise State junior guard Riley Lupfer came off the bench and logged 13 minutes for the Broncos. Lupfer, who had missed the last four games with an undisclosed injury, finished with three points, one rebound and one steal.
Boise State returns home Saturday to host UNLV at 2 p.m. at Taco Bell Arena.
MEN: COLORADO ST. 76, BOISE ST. 62
COLORADO STATE (12-16)
CARVACHO,Nico 8-13 3-5 19; THISTLEWOOD,Adam 6-10 0-0 14; MARTIN,Kris 6-9 0-0 13; MOORE,Kendle 4-7 0-0 10; PAIGE,J.D. 4-7 1-2 10; EDWARDS,Hyron 2-7 2-2 6; RYAN,Logan 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 32-55 6-9 76.
BOISE STATE (11-17)
JESSUP, Justinian 10-17 1-2 25; HOBBS, Alex 5-12 2-2 12; WILLIAMS, RJ 5-7 0-1 10; DICKINSON, Marcus 3-11 0-0 6; ALSTON, Derrick 2-11 0-0 5; HANEY, Zach 1-5 0-2 2; HARWELL, Malek 1-5 0-0 2; WACKER, David 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-68 3-7 62.
Colorado State................ 33 43 — 76
Boise State................... 26 36 — 62
3-point goals — Colorado State 6-15 (THISTLEWOOD,Adam 2-5; MOORE,Kendle 2-3; PAIGE,J.D. 1-4; MARTIN,Kris 1-1; EDWARDS,Hyron 0-2), Boise State 5-27 (JESSUP, Justinian 4-9; ALSTON, Derrick 1-6; DICKINSON, Marcus 0-7; HARWELL, Malek 0-1; HOBBS, Alex 0-4). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Colorado State 32 (CARVACHO,Nico 14), Boise State 31 (HARWELL, Malek 8). Assists — Colorado State 16 (CARVACHO,Nico 5), Boise State 11 (JESSUP, Justinian 4). Total fouls — Colorado State 10, Boise State 14. Technical fouls — Colorado State-MARTIN,Kris, Boise State-None. A — 5,152.
WOMEN: BOISE ST. 72, COLORADO ST. 63
BOISE ST. (22-4, 13-2 MW)
HODGINS, Braydey 8-20 3-4 20; HERMIDA, Marta 5-12 6-6 17; COLEMAN, A’Shanti 4-10 2-2 10; CHRISTOPHER, Jayde 3-9 2-4 10; HARRELL, Joyce 2-4 1-2 5; AMUNDSEN, Tess 1-4 0-0 3; LUPFER, Riley 1-2 0-0 3; LOVILLE, Jade 1-2 0-0 2; BOWERS, Rachel 1-2 0-0 2; VANDERSCHAAF, Marijk 0-0 0-0 0; WOERNER, Ellie 0-2 0-0 0; GALERON, Sofia 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-67 14-18 72.
COLORADO ST. (8-18, 2-13 MW)
Mollie Mounsey 6-15 2-2 17; Grace Colaivalu 5-11 6-7 16; Lore Devos 8-17 0-0 16; Tatum Neubert 3-7 2-2 8; Myanne Hamm 3-6 0-0 6; Liah Davis 0-5 0-0 0; Lauren Brocke 0-1 0-0 0; Lena Svanholm 0-0 0-0 0; MOLE, Taylor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-62 10-11 63.
Boise St...................... 15 18 18 8 13 — 72
Colorado State................ 10 18 12 19 4 — 63
3-point goals — Boise St. 6-23 (CHRISTOPHER, Jayde 2-7; AMUNDSEN, Tess 1-2; HERMIDA, Marta 1-4; HODGINS, Braydey 1-7; LUPFER, Riley 1-2; WOERNER, Ellie 0-1), Colorado State 3-14 (Mollie Mounsey 3-9; Grace Colaivalu 0-1; Lore Devos 0-1; Tatum Neubert 0-1; Myanne Hamm 0-1; Lauren Brocke 0-1). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Boise St. 40 (HARRELL, Joyce 10), Colorado State 38 (Myanne Hamm 7). Assists — Boise St. 12 (HERMIDA, Marta 3; CHRISTOPHER, Jayde 3), Colorado State 11 (Grace Colaivalu 5). Total fouls — Boise St. 7, Colorado State 14. Technical fouls — None. A — 1,110.
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 9:03 PM.
