Boise State women one win from Mountain West history, NCAA Tournament ticket
Boise State women’s basketball coach Gordy Presnell probably won’t sleep much Tuesday night. Assistant coaches Heather Sower and Cariann Ramirez are likely in for a long night, too.
Maybe Wednesday night they’ll finally get some rest.
The Broncos held off Wyoming 79-71 in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament to advance to their fourth straight championship game. It was Boise State’s record 11th consecutive tournament win dating back to 2017, but for Presnell — a self-described pessimist — the stress of the win-or-go-home scenario tends to outweigh the fun.
“That’s just kind of his nature,” Boise State senior Braydey Hodgins said. “But we’re hoping to bring him some relief tomorrow.”
Relief would come in the form of an unprecedented fourth straight tournament title, and the Broncos (23-9) will have to go through top-seeded Fresno State (25-6) to get there. The championship tips off at 9 p.m. MT Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The matchup will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Fresno State won the only meeting between the two teams this season, 85-80, on Jan. 25 in Boise.
“I think we kind of have a little bit of an edge. We’ve been here three times now,” Hodgins said. “We’re just gonna play our game, and the rest will take care of itself. Obviously, nerves are going to be there, but hopefully those settle as the game gets going. And we’re going to prepare as best we can. The more prepared you are the less nervous you are.”
Boise State’s coaching staff had their laptops out analyzing game film before the Broncos even left the arena Tuesday night. Presnell, Sower and Ramirez will put in a long night of game prep to make the Broncos’ job easier come tipoff.
“They’re gonna work as hard as they can just so we can put our best product on the court,” Hodgins said.
In Tuesday’s win over the Cowgirls (17-12), A’Shanti Coleman kept up her torrid pace of late, notching her fifth straight 20-point game. The redshirt senior from San Francisco, who spent one season at Arizona before transferring to Boise State, is just the third Bronco to accomplish the feat. Coleman finished with a double-double of 20 points and 12 boards to go over 1,000 points for her career.
“I missed a few shots in the beginning, but I didn’t let that get to me,” Coleman said. “My teammates were encouraging me, because sometimes I tend to focus on the shots that I miss. But overall, we were just working well with each other.”
Boise State redshirt senior Jayde Christopher added a double-double of her own with 10 assists and 10 rebounds. She pushed her Mountain West single-season assists record to 260. Riley Lupfer (13 points), Jade Loville (12 points), Mallory McGwire (10 points) and Hodgins (10 points) all scored in double figures. It marked the seventh straight game in which the Broncos have had four or more players score in double digits.
The Broncos started the game 2-for-12 from the field to fall behind 9-2 with 6:18 left in the first quarter. Boise State then shot 73.3 percent in the second quarter and outscored the Cowgirls 29-17 in the frame for a 44-32 halftime lead.
Wyoming trimmed Boise State’s lead to 68-63 with 5:01 remaining in the game and had a chance to cut the deficit even more after Wyoming guard Alba Sanchez Ramos stole the ball and raced downcourt for a layup. But just before Sanchez Ramos got to the basket, Christopher swooped in and swiped the ball back. She then tossed the ball ahead to Coleman for a layup, and Boise State’s lead never dipped below seven points the rest of the way.
Hodgins wrapped up the win at the free-throw line by going 6-for-6 over the final 57.8 seconds.
“There’s a camaraderie there. We’ve been through the wars together,” Presnell said. “I’ve just really enjoyed being in their company. I’ll miss practices and just coming and listening to them talk and joke around. They’re just full of personality. And not only so successful athletically but really successful academically. I’m just proud to be around them, proud to be their coach.”
Should they beat Fresno State, the Broncos will be headed to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the last six seasons, assuring Presnell at least one more game with six very decorated seniors.
“I appreciate them, that’s for sure. They’ve meant a lot to me in my career and my life,” Presnell said. “I love them, and I’m getting emotional. But anyway, we just need to go 40 minutes. They have to hear me yell at them for about 40 more minutes and hopefully we’ll have sent them off on a wonderful career.”
Men’s basketball: Three-peat for C of I
Seniors Nate Bruneel, Jake Bruner and Talon Pinckney played their final game at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center on Tuesday night, and they made sure it was a memorable one.
Behind Pinckney’s team-high 23 points, the College of Idaho men’s basketball team extended its program-record winning streak to 24 games and simultaneously sewed up a third straight Cascade Conference Tournament title by beating Oregon Tech 82-77.
The top-ranked Coyotes (30-3) were named the No. 1 seed for next week’s NAIA Division II National Championship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They’ll play Northwestern (Iowa) on March 11.
With the game knotted at 69 and less than 5 minutes to play, Pinckney sank an 18-foot jumper to give the Coyotes the lead for good. Oregon Tech got within a single possession at 77-75, and Pinckney answered yet again, this time connecting on a step-back triple with 29 seconds left.
The Owls got one more chance to tie the game inside the final 10 seconds, but Seth Erickson missed a contested 3-pointer. C of I’s Ricardo Time corralled the rebound and hit the resulting two free throws to clinch the win.
Bruneel scored 17 points, and Time added 14 points and six boards as the Coyotes improved to 18-1 at home. It is the most home wins in a season in program history.
BSU men ready for UNLV rubber match
The task at hand for the Boise State men’s basketball team is pretty straightforward — the Broncos must play better defense.
Seven days after losing to UNLV in their regular-season finale, the fifth-seeded Broncos (19-11) face the No. 4 Rebels (17-14) again in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament. Tipoff is 3 p.m. MT Thursday (CBS Sports Network) at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Boise State trailed by as many as 27 points in a 76-66 setback at UNLV on Feb. 26, giving up 42 of those points in the paint. UNLV guards Amauri Hardy and Bryce Hamilton seemingly drove to the basket at will, scoring 24 and 22 points, respectively,
“Obviously we didn’t do a very good job in some things in the last game,” Rice said. “If we don’t do a better job this game, then the season’s over. That’s the reality of the situation that you’re in at this time of year. We’ve got a lot of guys that want to keep playing, and we’re going to go do battle.”
The all-time series between the Broncos and Rebels is tied at 10. The teams split the season series, with each team winning on its home floor. The Broncos won 73-66 on Jan. 8 in Boise.
“I was pleased with their approach all week,” Rice said. “I’ve got a veteran group that likes each other and wants to keep playing. They want to keep competing. They like being at the tournament, and there’s only one way to stay here.”
BOISE ST. 79, WYOMING 71
WYOMING (17-12)
Tereza Vitulova 7-17 2-2 16; Taylor Rusk 6-14 2-2 14; Quinn Weidemann 4-9 5-5 13; Alba Sanchez Ramos 3-5 3-4 9; Karla Erjavec 3-5 2-2 8; McKinley Bradshaw 2-2 0-0 5; Selale Kepenc 1-2 0-0 2; Tommi Olson 1-2 0-0 2; Jaeden Vaifanua 1-5 0-0 2; Jaye Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-61 14-15 71.
BOISE ST. (23-9)
A’Shanti Coleman 9-18 0-0 20; Riley Lupfer 4-9 3-4 13; Jade Loville 6-10 0-0 12; Mallory McGwire 3-8 3-4 10; Braydey Hodgins 2-6 6-6 10; Jayde Christopher 2-9 1-2 6; Ellie Woerner 2-4 0-0 6; Rachel Bowers 1-2 0-0 2; Maggie Freeman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 13-16 79.
Wyoming....................... 15 17 25 14 — 71
Boise St...................... 15 29 19 16 — 79
3-point goals — Wyoming 1-13 (Bradshaw 1-1; Rusk 0-4; Weidemann 0-1; Sanchez Ramos 0-2; Kepenc 0-1; Vaifanua 0-1; Vitulova 0-3), Boise St. 8-26 (Woerner 2-2; Coleman 2-5; Lupfer 2-7; McGwire 1-6; Christopher 1-4; Freeman 0-1; Hodgins 0-1). Fouled out — Wyoming-None, Boise St.-McGwire. Rebounds — Wyoming 34 (Vitulova 7), Boise St. 40 (Coleman 12). Assists — Wyoming 8 (Erjavec 4), Boise St. 16 (Christopher 10). Total fouls — Wyoming 17, Boise St. 14. Technical fouls — None. A — 1,718.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 11:29 PM.
