Boise State basketball simply ‘outplayed’ by No. 4 San Diego State in rare home loss
Leon Rice wasn’t about to berate his Boise State men’s basketball team. The loss itself was punishment enough.
In what they had hoped would be the biggest upset in program history, the Broncos fell 72-55 to No. 4 San Diego State in front of a season-best crowd of 10,651 on Sunday afternoon at ExtraMile Arena.
“I’m disappointed for them. I wasn’t disappointed in them,” said Rice, whose team saw its 11-game home winning streak come to an end.
“Because it wasn’t lack of effort. It’s a mindset that we have to get to to win those kind of games with this group, and I thought Justinian (Jessup) had it, but you’ve got to have everybody have it to beat that good of a team.”
Jessup and redshirt junior guard Derrick Alston Jr. combined for 34 of Boise State’s 55 points, but no other Bronco scored more than four points.
Meanwhile, the unbeaten Aztecs had five players reach double figures in scoring, paced by Malachi Flynn’s 22 points with six rebounds and six assists. Yanni Wetzell (14 points), Jordan Schakel (12 points), Matt Mitchell (11 points) and KJ Feagin (10 points) rounded out a balanced effort for SDSU (26-0, 15-0), which has already wrapped up the Mountain West’s regular-season title. The Aztecs also shot a combined 55.6 percent from the field.
“It’s not like they’re running special plays or anything,” Jessup said. “They just run the same stuff over and over, and their execution is top notch. They know exactly where they want to get the ball, how they want to get it there and which guys are going to shoot the type of shots they want. When you get an offense like that, it’s hard to guard.”
Jessup was the Broncos’ top scorer with 22 points, including a 5-for-10 effort from beyond the arc. Alston chipped in 12 points, and RJ Williams grabbed a game-best eight boards. But Boise State’s 55 points were its lowest total in league play since a 63-53 loss to Fresno State on Jan. 19, 2019.
“We just didn’t get it done, straight up,” Jessup said. “They outplayed us in pretty much every facet.”
Boise State (17-10, 9-6) entered the game tied for second in the conference standings but fell to fifth with the loss. The top five teams at the end of the regular season earn a first-round bye in the Mountain West Tournament.
Flynn got the Aztecs off to an efficient start in a game that did not see its first foul called until there were 7 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the first half. The 6-foot-1 transfer from Washington State scored the game’s first points on a 3-pointer and knocked down five of his seven first-half attempts as the Aztecs took a 40-26 lead into the locker room.
Boise State trimmed San Diego State’s lead to eight, 50-42, on a Jessup triple with 10:25 to play. The Aztecs then went on a 22-8 run to push their Division I-leading winning streak to 26 straight games.
Jessup passed both Chandler Hutchison (1,478) and Roberto Bergersen (1,485) on Boise State’s career points list on Sunday. He now ranks No. 8 in program history with 1,500 points. Bergersen coached Jessup in youth basketball when Jessup’s family lived in the Boise area.
“No greater moment in teaching than when your student surpasses your accomplishments and becomes greater than you,” Bergersen wrote on Twitter. “I had little influence on Justinian’s success. Met him as a gym rat, and he still is a gym rat!”
The Broncos have three Mountain West regular-season games remaining, including just one more home contest. Boise State next faces San Jose State at 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday in San Jose, California. The Broncos close out their home schedule against New Mexico (2 p.m., CBS Sports Network) on Sunday, Feb. 23, and their last regular-season game is Wednesday, Feb. 26, at UNLV (9 p.m. MT, CBS Sports Network).
“We just have to keep playing and keep working,” Alston said. “... You go through valleys where stuff gets tough, but you just have to keep fighting and in the end we have a lot of fighters in our locker room.”
Note: For the second time this season, Alston passed the basketball off the backboard to himself and finished with a lay-in. He had the same play against San Jose State, which ended with a dunk.
NO. 4 SAN DIEGO ST. 72, BOISE ST. 55
SAN DIEGO ST. (26-0, 15-0 MW)
Mitchell 4-7 2-2 11, Wetzell 7-11 0-0 14, Feagin 4-7 0-0 10, Flynn 9-16 0-0 22, Schakel 5-9 0-0 12, Pulliam 0-2 0-0 0, Seiko 1-2 0-0 2, Arop 0-0 0-0 0, Narain 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 30-54 3-4 72.
BOISE ST. (17-10, 9-6 MW)
Kigab 1-4 0-0 2, Alston 5-12 0-0 12, Dennis 1-4 0-0 3, Jessup 8-13 1-1 22, Williams 2-4 0-2 4, Dickinson 1-3 0-0 3, Hobbs 1-6 2-2 4, Jorch 1-2 0-0 2, Rice 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 21-51 3-5 55.
Halftime—San Diego St. 40-26. 3-Point Goals—San Diego St. 9-24 (Flynn 4-9, Feagin 2-4, Schakel 2-6, Mitchell 1-2, Pulliam 0-1, Seiko 0-1, Wetzell 0-1), Boise St. 10-26 (Jessup 5-10, Alston 2-5, Dennis 1-3, Dickinson 1-3, Rice 1-3, Kigab 0-2). Rebounds—San Diego St. 26 (Mitchell, Wetzell 7), Boise St. 26 (Williams 8). Assists—San Diego St. 16 (Flynn 6), Boise St. 7 (Kigab, Alston 2). Total Fouls—San Diego St. 7, Boise St. 11. A—10,651 (12,480).
This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 4:09 PM.
