‘Losing sucks.’ Roddy, Colorado State put an end to Boise State’s record winning streak
On Monday, Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice joked he might have to tell his NFL friends to take a look at Colorado State’s David Roddy.
Anything to avoid game planning for the 6-foot-5, 252-pound sophomore who looks just as suited for the football field as he does for the basketball court.
The versatile Roddy was as dangerous as Rice anticipated, registering a double-double of 27 points and 15 rebounds in Colorado State’s 78-56 victory over Boise State on Wednesday night at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado. The loss ended the Broncos’ program-record 13-game winning streak.
“He’s a great player,” Rice said in a postgame Zoom interview. “He shoots it outside. He’s a great rebounder. He’s tough around the basket, good passer. He’s a really, really good basketball player, and he handed us our hats tonight.”
Roddy went 10-for-16 from the field, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range, and was one of four Rams to score in double figures.
“He’s a beast down there. He’s a load for sure,” Boise State redshirt senior Derrick Alston Jr. said. “He was kind of going through our defenders and things like that, so I think we’ve just gotta take that challenge more personally. Myself, I had him a couple times. … We gave him a lot of space, and he made us pay.”
Wednesday’s loss was Boise State’s first in exactly two months. After losing 68-58 to No. 8 Houston in their season opener Nov. 27, the Broncos (13-2, 9-1 MW) collected 13 straight wins and started 9-0 in league play for the first time in program history. Their 13-game winning streak included 11 double-digit victories, eight by at least 20 points and four by 30 or more.
“Losing sucks, no matter how long it’s been,” Rice said. “Our guys don’t like it. You go two months without losing and you’d think it would maybe lessen the pain or how you feel about it, but we still feel the same way about it. That’s the beauty of these guys, whenever we’ve had a big challenge, they’ve responded. And we’ve got a big challenge ahead of us on Friday, and we’ve got a lot of work to do until then.”
Alston scored 14 of his team-leading 20 points over the first 8:24 of the second half as the Broncos attempted to come back from a 40-25 halftime deficit. Alston’s dunk with 11:36 remaining trimmed Colorado State’s lead to 50-45, but Rice sat him on the bench for a breather when he was whistled for an offensive foul with 11:02 to go.
“That’s where our depth has helped us. We’ve gotta be able to do that,” Rice said. “All year long we haven’t got hurt by that. That’s the thing, you leave (Alston) out there tired, well, then you’re gonna have defensive breakdowns. That’s not fair to him either. If we can just get him a minute’s rest around the media (timeout) that usually helps him a ton. But it seemed like in that minute (Colorado State’s lead) went from eight to 12 to 14.”
Colorado State’s John Tonje buried two triples in a little more than a minute, and the Broncos made just one field goal over the final 8:44. The Rams (12-3, 9-2) closed the game on an 8-0 run, outrebounded the Broncos 40-24 and scored 42 points in the paint compared to BSU’s 28.
“We’ll go through it with a fine-toothed comb. That’s what we always do. Win or lose, it’s the same,” Rice said. “Now we’ve got to analyze, figure out what we did wrong, what we didn’t do well, where the mistakes were made and what we can fix. And we’ve gotta be able to do it in a hurry without much court time. But I know our guys will be excited to get back out there and try to fix the things we can fix.”
The Broncos and Rams play again Friday. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. Boise State still owns a half-game lead over Colorado State and Utah State in the Mountain West standings.
“We can’t put all our eggs in one basket,” Alston said. “… There’s still a lot of games left to be played and things like that but, obviously, a loss hurts and there’s a sour taste, so we’re just excited to go back out on Friday.”
NOTES: With his 20 points Wednesday, Alston moved to No. 12 on Boise State’s career scoring list with 1,257 points. He passed Vince Hinchen, who scored 1,243 points from 1981 to 1984. … The Broncos’ 56 points against the Rams were a season low.
WOMEN: COLORADO STATE 71, BOISE STATE 51
The beginning of a new era is bound to have its ups and downs, and the Boise State women’s basketball team is fighting its way through a difficult stretch.
The Broncos lost 71-51 to Colorado State on Wednesday afternoon in a Mountain West matchup at ExtraMile Arena. It is Boise State’s first three-game losing streak since the 2015-16 season.
The Broncos shot a season-low 28.2% from the floor and scored just two points in the second quarter.
“We’ve got 10 freshmen. You’re going to take some setbacks and then you’re going to try to move forward. Let’s hope that this was a step back and then hopefully we can go two steps forward on Friday,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said in a postgame Zoom interview. “… It was our choice. We’re trying to rebuild this with freshmen and then over the next couple of years add pieces to it. We’re trying to build another core group like we’ve had in the past, so we’re gonna take some lumps.”
After winning a fourth consecutive Mountain West Tournament championship last March, this year’s roster is comprised of eight true freshmen, two redshirt freshmen, two juniors and a redshirt senior. Their raw talent is apparent, but consistency from game to game — and even minute to minute — has been lacking.
The Broncos led Colorado State 4-2 to start the game before the Rams rattled off a 17-0 run to take a 19-4 lead. BSU regrouped briefly for a 10-0 run of its own to pull within 19-14 at the end of the first quarter.
But the Broncos (8-4, 5-4 MW) disappeared offensively in the second quarter, going 1-for-18 from the floor, including an 0-for-13 stretch. Junior guard Jade Loville’s jumper from the right elbow with 7:56 to play in the second provided the Broncos’ only points of the quarter. Luckily for the Broncos, the first-place Rams (11-2, 7-2) didn’t perform much better in the quarter, registering eight points while going scoreless over the final 6:02.
“We have got to be able to come off that ball screen and hit a shot from the elbow,” Presnell said. “We’re Division I basketball players. I know we’re freshmen, but the problem is you get insecure and the rim shrinks on you, then you kind of spiral a little bit. We talked about that prepping for the game, that you have to push the reset button in your head and it’s a new possession and forget about that.
“But we were not able to do that. I don’t know when the last time in my career we had a two-point quarter (was). But we set basketball back about 100 years with the 8-2 second quarter.”
Boise State cut Colorado State’s lead to four points on two occasions in the second half. Freshman Elodie Lalotte’s putback with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter made it 42-38 Colorado State. But the gap only widened from there as the Rams scored 14 unanswered points between the end of the third and start of the fourth.
Senior center Mallory McGwire, who was limited to 5 minutes in the first half with foul trouble, fouled out with 5:59 left in the game. It was another blow to the Broncos’ waning confidence.
“It’s definitely hard. I know losses are hard, and we can take them tough,” Boise State freshman guard Mary Kay Naro said. “But it’s just being mentally tough and knowing that we’re gonna struggle and we just have to learn from struggling. We need to change things, and we can’t keep doing things the same way.”
Loville paced the Broncos with 13 points and six rebounds, and Naro contributed nine points, a team-leading seven rebounds and two assists. McGwire and redshirt freshman Kimora Sykes had seven points apiece.
Ellie Boni led four Rams in double figures with 19 points. Centennial High graduate Tori Williams started the game for the Rams and totaled eight points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists.
The Broncos and Rams meet again at 1 p.m. Friday at ExtraMile Arena. Boise State will also be home next week for two games against Nevada on Feb. 5 and Feb. 7. A live stream of the Broncos’ games is available at BroncoSports.com/mwn, or listen on the radio on 1350 AM.
MEN: COLORADO ST. 78, BOISE ST. 56
BOISE ST. (13-2, 9-1 MW)
Armus 1-2 2-7 4, Kigab 3-8 0-0 6, Alston 8-16 1-2 20, Dennis 3-9 2-2 8, Shaver 3-9 2-2 10, Doutrive 3-6 2-2 8, Rice 0-3 0-0 0, Akot 0-2 0-0 0, N.Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 9-15 56.
COLORADO ST. (12-3, 9-2 MW)
Moors 2-4 0-0 4, Thistlewood 2-6 0-0 6, Moore 4-8 2-2 11, Stevens 5-9 2-3 12, Roddy 10-16 5-8 27, Tonje 3-4 3-3 11, Thomas 1-3 0-0 2, Byrd 1-1 0-0 2, Rivera 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 29-52 12-16 78.
Halftime—Colorado St. 40-25. 3-Point Goals—Boise St. 5-23 (Alston 3-7, Shaver 2-5, Doutrive 0-2, Rice 0-2, Dennis 0-3, Kigab 0-4), Colorado St. 8-20 (Tonje 2-2, Roddy 2-5, Thistlewood 2-6, Rivera 1-1, Moore 1-3, Thomas 0-1, Stevens 0-2). Rebounds—Boise St. 24 (Armus 7), Colorado St. 39 (Roddy 15). Assists—Boise St. 11 (Dennis 4), Colorado St. 17 (Stevens 10). Total Fouls—Boise St. 12, Colorado St. 18.
WOMEN: COLORADO ST. 71, BOISE ST. 51
COLORADO ST. (11-2, 7-2 MW)
Ellie Boni 7-10 4-4 19; Lore Devos 4-14 4-4 13; Jamie Bonnarens 4-6 0-0 10; Cali Clark 4-9 2-2 10; Tori Williams 2-9 2-2 8; McKenna Hofschild 2-9 2-2 7; Karly Murphy 1-6 2-2 4; Bengisu Alper 0-0 0-0 0; Petra Farkas 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-65 16-16 71.
BOISE ST. (8-4, 5-4 MW)
Jade Loville 5-21 3-3 13; Mary Kay Naro 4-11 0-0 9; Mallory McGwire 3-4 1-2 7; Kimora Sykes 2-8 2-2 7; Elodie Lalotte 3-4 0-1 6; Raigan Reed 1-4 2-2 5; Alexis Mark 2-8 0-0 4; Abby Muse 0-5 0-0 0; Martina Machalova 0-0 0-0 0; Cristina Gil 0-3 0-0 0; Anna Ostlie 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-71 8-10 51.
Colorado St................... 19 8 21 23 — 71
Boise St...................... 14 2 22 13 — 51
3-point goals — Colorado St. 7-20 (Bonnarens 2-3; Williams 2-6; Devos 1-3; Hofschild 1-4; Boni 1-2; Farkas 0-1; Clark 0-1), Boise St. 3-17 (Naro 1-4; Reed 1-3; Sykes 1-6; Gil 0-1; Ostlie 0-1; Loville 0-2). Fouled out — Colorado St.-None, Boise St.-McGwire. Rebounds — Colorado St. 46 (Boni 9), Boise St. 46 (Naro 7). Assists — Colorado St. 12 (Hofschild 8), Boise St. 5 (Naro 2). Total fouls — Colorado St. 10, Boise St. 17. Technical fouls — None.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 9:13 PM.
