Boise State takes over first place in Mountain West with home win over Utah State
The trouble really started for Utah State when Boise State players not named Derrick Alston Jr. began making game-altering plays.
By the time Boise State reserve guard Max Rice polished off a three-point play with 10:05 left in the second half, the Aggies had lost their final lead of the game.
While Alston carried Boise State with 18 of his team-best 26 points in the first half, the rest of the Broncos came through over the final 20 minutes for a 79-70 win over the Aggies on Wednesday night at ExtraMile Arena. The victory moved the Broncos (17-4, 13-3 MW) back into first place in the Mountain West men’s basketball standings and dropped the Aggies (14-6, 11-3) into a share of second with Colorado State (14-4, 11-3).
“That’s the thing I know about 12 is he’s a competitor. He cares about one thing — winning,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said of his son, Max, who wears No. 12 for the Broncos. “I just told him at halftime: ‘Be aggressive.’ ... When he’s aggressive, he can score and he can put a lot of pressure on the defense with the way he stretches the floor.”
Rice’s three-point play capped off a 9-2 Boise State run in the second half that took just 54 seconds off the clock. The spurt started with the Broncos down 54-51. Marcus Shaver Jr. stole the ball from Utah State’s Sean Bairstow under the Broncos’ basket and kicked it out to Rice for a 3-pointer. Then Abu Kigab knocked down a triple, and Rice followed on the Broncos’ next possession with the and-1 on a drive to the hoop for a 60-56 BSU advantage.
“I’m proud of the guys,” Alston said. “Everybody made big plays tonight to kind of get this one done.”
The Broncos had to overcome a career-high 32 points and 10 rebounds from 7-foot Utah State center Neemias Queta. The junior from Portugal scored 10 of the Aggies’ final 12 points, including a hook shot with 7:27 left that cut Boise State’s lead to 63-62.
“They’re a really good team, there’s no doubt about it,” Leon Rice said. “Queta’s one of the best big guys we’ve seen in a long, long time, and we’ve seen some good ones. He’s a heck of a player, and they have a great plan to get him the ball and they’ve got shooters all around him. He can drive a hard bargain at anybody, and we’ve got some pretty good defensive big guys. He’s just a load down there.”
After the Aggies pulled within one, Shaver took his turn leading the Broncos’ offensive attack, scoring eight straight points, highlighted by a three-point play that resulted in Queta’s fourth foul. Redshirt junior Emmanuel Akot delivered the gut-punch with a three-point play of his own to push the Broncos’ lead to eight, 74-66, with 3:26 to go.
Shaver finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists, and Kigab, Rice, RayJ Dennis and Mladen Armus scored eight points apiece for the Broncos. Armus also grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds before fouling out with 3:07 left. Lukas Milner spelled Armus with a career-best six points in 19 minutes.
Boise State played Wednesday’s game in front of fans for the first time this season. The university made 900 tickets available for the game and had an announced attendance of 679.
“It felt kind of more normal,” Alston said. “Five-hundred fans felt almost like 8,000, honestly. It was just good to have Bronco Nation in there cheering and supporting us. Man, we needed them today. It was a big win for us.”
The cheering fans provided an extra lift for the Broncos, who played without key bench contributor Devonaire Doutrive because of a dental emergency. The 6-foot-5, 185-pound junior from Dallas is averaging 8.5 points — fifth-most on the team — and 2.6 rebounds per game in 20.3 minutes this season.
“That was just a freak situation where it was a dental emergency and he just couldn’t have played. He had to get a tooth removed today,” Leon Rice said. “He wanted to play and do everything, but it was ... it was dire straits. I mean, I’ve never heard of such a thing. It was my first dental emergency where we had to sit somebody. But it’s that kind of year, so our guys just rolled with it.”
The Broncos and Aggies play again at 8 p.m. Friday (Fox Sports 1). A live radio broadcast is available on 670 AM.
BOISE ST. 79, UTAH ST. 70
UTAH ST. (14-6, 11-3 MW)
Bean 5-9 0-0 10, Queta 12-21 8-9 32, Anthony 5-11 1-2 11, Ashworth 1-5 0-0 3, Miller 1-6 0-2 2, Bairstow 2-5 0-0 5, Anderson 3-5 0-0 7, Dorius 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-63 9-13 70.
BOISE ST. (17-4, 13-3 MW)
Armus 3-5 2-2 8, Kigab 3-8 1-1 8, Alston 8-17 7-8 26, Dennis 3-8 0-0 8, Shaver 5-11 1-1 12, Akot 1-6 1-2 3, Milner 3-4 0-0 6, Rice 2-4 3-3 8. Totals 28-63 15-17 79.
Halftime—Utah St. 39-37. 3-Point Goals—Utah St. 3-16 (Bairstow 1-1, Anderson 1-3, Ashworth 1-3, Anthony 0-2, Bean 0-2, Miller 0-5), Boise St. 8-23 (Alston 3-6, Dennis 2-4, Rice 1-3, Shaver 1-3, Kigab 1-4, Akot 0-3). Fouled Out—Armus. Rebounds—Utah St. 34 (Queta 10), Boise St. 30 (Armus 7). Assists—Utah St. 14 (Ashworth 6), Boise St. 13 (Dennis 4). Total Fouls—Utah St. 20, Boise St. 18. A—679 (12,480).
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 6:33 PM.
