Boise State opens season with loss to No. 17 Houston, without two players due to COVID-19
Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice knew COVID-19 complications were bound to affect the Broncos this season.
But that didn’t lessen the sting when the coronavirus reared its head just before the Broncos’ season opener Friday at No. 17 Houston.
Two Broncos players did not make the trip to Texas because of COVID-19 protocol, including projected starter Emmanuel Akot. The disruption carried over onto the court, where the Broncos lost 68-58 to the Cougars at the Fertitta Center.
Junior guard Devonaire Doutrive, who won’t be eligible until the second semester, also did not travel with the team to Texas. There were no positive COVID-19 tests on the team, BSU said, but players also can be held out because of contact tracing.
“That stuff is tough. (Emmanuel) lost his appeal last year, and he’s just waited so long to be out there with this team,” Rice said in a postgame interview. “He’s such an emotional leader. He’s got good moxie, and he’s just such a big part of this team. It broke my heart that he couldn’t be on this trip.”
Houston was playing its second game of the season, and the Cougars (2-0) looked a step ahead of the Broncos (0-1) throughout much of the matchup.
Sophomore guard RayJ Dennis was the Broncos’ primary source of offense in the early going, and he finished with a team-leading 18 points — just one short of tying his career high — on 8-for-13 shooting from the field to go with three rebounds, three assists and a steal. In the first half, Dennis was 4-for-7, while the rest of the Broncos were just 2-for-14 shooting, leading to a 34-19 halftime deficit.
“Definitely a confidence booster for sure just to kind of show me that the work works, like the hard work is paying off for me individually,” Dennis said. “We’re gonna be a good team this year is also what I think. But also I’m way more comfortable than freshman year, and I feel like myself again a little bit.”
Portland transfer Marcus Shaver Jr. provided a late push for the Broncos with three second-half steals that led to layups, helping the Broncos cut Houston’s 20-point lead to single digits. Shaver drew a foul on a made layup after a steal with 4:03 left, and the play happened so quickly that the ESPN+ camera crew couldn’t keep up.
All but two of Boise State’s 21 fast-break points came in the second half as the Broncos made an 18-5 run that trimmed Houston’s lead to as little as 57-50 with 3:25 remaining.
“I think our transition will be a huge part of us winning games,” Dennis said. “Our defense turning into transition buckets, because we’re really tough in transition. We’ve got guys that could finish everywhere and finish above the rim, too, so transition will be huge for us.”
Shaver totaled 16 points, 13 of which came in the second half, and a team-best seven rebounds in his Boise State debut. East Tennessee State transfer Mladen Armus added 11 points and six boards. Junior college transfers Naje Smith (Cochise College) and Lukas Milner (Johnson County CC) also logged playing time for the first time as Broncos.
“Mladen and (Shaver), it’s their first time playing in almost two years,” Dennis said. “I think we just had some first-game jitters that we had to get out in the first half, like missing free throws is uncharacteristic, us getting beat like that on the rebounds is uncharacteristic stuff. Those are things we can fix.”
Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Derrick Alston Jr. was surprisingly quiet. The NBA prospect went 0-for-6 from the floor with three assists, one rebound, one block and one steal.
“One of our best players didn’t score today, but he will in the future,” Dennis said. “We’re not even worried about that.”
The Broncos finished just 1-for-16 from 3-point range and 15-for-26 from the free-throw line, and they were outrebounded 49-26. But Boise State’s effort over the final 10 minutes of the second half gives Rice confidence his team will be just fine moving forward.
“I had some guys that were pretty darn excited to play for a lot of reasons. We try to get them to that sea-blue mentality where they’re calm and ready to play, but I think we were a little juiced up and it took us a little while to settle that down,” Rice said. “We missed some shots early — like a couple layins and a boatload of free throws — and if you could have just kept that thing under 10 at halftime, then when you make your run, then you’re in it, then you’ve got a chance. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole.
“I like what I saw, with some of the stuff in the second half, we started to play a little bit more like what I’ve seen in practice, and what we can be. We just have to be able to do that, fix some of the things that we saw that we didn’t do well, and we’ve got to fix them in a hurry because we play again in less than 48 hours.”
Boise State will remain in the Lone Star State for the Southwest Showcase on Sunday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, where the Broncos take on Sam Houston State at noon.
NO. 17 HOUSTON 68, BOISE ST. 58
BOISE ST. (0-1): Armus 5-8 1-2 11, Kigab 2-9 4-9 8, Alston 0-6 0-0 0, Dennis 8-13 2-4 18, Shaver 4-11 8-9 16, Rice 1-3 0-0 3, Milner 1-1 0-2 2, N.Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-51 15-26 58.
HOUSTON (2-0): Gorham 1-1 0-0 2, Gresham 1-4 0-0 2, Grimes 9-15 6-7 25, Jarreau 2-9 1-2 6, Sasser 4-12 0-0 10, Mark 2-6 4-4 9, Roberts 1-5 0-0 2, Mills 4-6 4-4 12, Chaney 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-59 15-17 68.
Halftime—Houston 34-19. 3-Point Goals—Boise St. 1-16 (Rice 1-2, Alston 0-3, Kigab 0-3, Dennis 0-4, Shaver 0-4), Houston 5-17 (Sasser 2-7, Jarreau 1-1, Mark 1-2, Grimes 1-6, Mills 0-1). Rebounds—Boise St. 24 (Shaver 7), Houston 46 (Roberts 14). Assists—Boise St. 11 (Alston, Dennis 3), Houston 3 (Sasser 2). Total Fouls—Boise St. 16, Houston 24. A—1,859 (8,479).
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
