Boise State erases horrible start with dynamic finish to beat Fresno State
Fans with superstitious tendencies aimed their frustration at Mladen Armus.
Clearly the Boise State big man should have known better than to shave his beard during a winning streak.
But it wasn’t the 6-foot-10 Serb’s bare face that caused the Broncos so much grief. It was that darn basket.
Boise State overcame its worst shooting performance of the season to beat Fresno State 73-51 on Wednesday night at ExtraMile Arena. The Broncos extended their program-record winning streak to 13 straight games and maintained a share of first place in the Mountain West at 9-0 in league play.
“These guys are elite at their response,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said in a postgame Zoom interview. “I’ve got veterans that are just like, ‘No, that’s enough. We’re gonna fix it.’ And they did.”
The Broncos (13-1, 9-0 MW) took their first lead of the game, 48-46, on a Derrick Alston Jr. drive to the rack with 9:38 remaining in the second half. It was part of a 30-5 Boise State run to close out the game and made up for an absolutely abysmal shooting start against the Bulldogs (5-6, 3-6).
“We weren’t ourselves in that first half, and I think that was probably one of our worst halves. We were fortunate to only be down by two,” Alston said. “I’m just proud of the guys and how we responded in that second half and came out from the jump really and asserted our will and just got back to playing Bronco basketball.”
The Broncos missed their first 11 shots and didn’t get their first field goal until Max Rice made a jumper in the key with 12:54 on the clock in the first half. They stayed in it at the free-throw line, where the Broncos converted on 9-of-10 attempts to pull within a possession of Fresno State at halftime, 30-28.
Boise State shot just 25.7% from the floor in the first half (9-for-35) and 7.1% from beyond the arc (1-for-14). Thanks to a second-half shooting percentage of 53.1, the Broncos finished at a clip of 38.8% (26-for-67) for the game, which was still a season low. They also knocked down 5-of-11 triples in the final 20 minutes and held Fresno State to a single field goal over the last 13 minutes.
“We’re gonna get every team’s best game. We can’t start off the way we did,” Boise State redshirt junior Marcus Shaver Jr. said. “In my opinion, we started off pretty slow defensively, and that affected us offensively as well. We just can’t start off like that ever again, and we definitely will learn from this game right here.”
Alston led the Broncos with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists. Shaver had 17 points, including making his final five shots, to go with six rebounds, three steals and two assists. Senior forward Abu Kigab contributed a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the now beardless Armus added nine points and eight rebounds.
“We definitely talked about that in the locker room. Everybody was shocked that he shaved his beard,” Shaver said. “But he did good tonight, and we’re proud of him for that.”
Redshirt junior Emmanuel Akot, who had missed the Broncos’ past three games with a sore Achilles, returned to the lineup Wednesday. It marked only the second time this season that Boise State had its entire roster available for a game. Akot played 15 minutes off the bench and totaled two points, four rebounds and two assists.
Boise State has now won six of its nine conference games this season by 20 points or more, which is a school record. The Broncos’ average margin of victory in league play is 23.2 points per game.
“My favorite thing about this team, and there’s a lot of favorite things, but ... the number one quality they have that is the reason why we’ve won these games that we’ve won is their ability to respond,” Rice said. “I mean, this is a league game. This is a Division I team with good coaches and good players. They’re going to have a strategy, and they’re going to have a way to try to attack us and they’re going to slow it down. They’re going to muddy the game up, and guys are going to come with different things. We have to have that ability to respond to it when things aren’t going right for us. And that’s what we showed at halftime.”
The Broncos host the Bulldogs again on Friday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at ExtraMile Arena, and the game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. Live radio coverage is available on 670 AM.
Notes: Alston has scored at least 20 points in seven games this season and 29 for his career, which is the third-most 20-point games by a Bronco during Rice’s tenure. Alston broke a tie with Chandler Hutchison (28) and now trails only Derrick Marks (31) and Anthony Drmic (38). ... Boise State outrebounded Fresno State 42-32, including a 24-9 advantage in the second half.
BOISE ST. 73, FRESNO ST. 51
FRESNO ST. (5-6, 3-6 MW)
Gray 2-4 0-0 4, Robinson 6-16 5-7 17, Ballard 2-5 0-0 5, Campbell 2-4 4-4 8, Hill 1-10 0-0 3, Harding 2-3 1-3 6, Colimerio 1-2 0-0 2, Gage 3-6 0-0 6, Meah 0-0 0-0 0, Diouf 0-0 0-0 0, Whitaker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-50 10-14 51.
BOISE ST. (13-1, 9-0 MW)
Armus 4-9 1-1 9, Kigab 5-12 4-5 15, Alston 7-16 4-4 21, Dennis 1-4 2-2 4, Shaver 7-13 1-1 17, Doutrive 0-5 3-4 3, Akot 1-5 0-0 2, Rice 1-3 0-0 2, Milner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-67 15-17 73.
Halftime—Fresno St. 30-28. 3-Point Goals—Fresno St. 3-13 (Harding 1-1, Ballard 1-4, Hill 1-5, Campbell 0-1, Colimerio 0-1, Gage 0-1), Boise St. 6-25 (Alston 3-7, Shaver 2-5, Kigab 1-5, Armus 0-1, Dennis 0-1, Akot 0-2, Doutrive 0-2, Rice 0-2). Rebounds—Fresno St. 30 (Robinson 9), Boise St. 38 (Kigab 11). Assists—Fresno St. 6 (Hill 3), Boise St. 12 (Alston 4). Total Fouls—Fresno St. 16, Boise St. 14.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 9:21 PM.
