No. 22 San Diego State needs OT to knock Boise State out of first place in Mountain West
The Boise State men’s basketball team entered Thursday’s Mountain West matchup against San Diego State averaging a league-low 11.1 turnovers per game.
Committing 12 first-half turnovers against the best defensive team in the conference simply wasn’t going to cut it.
No. 22 San Diego State hammered Boise State in the first half and held off the Broncos’ spirited comeback bid over the final 20 minutes and overtime to secure a 78-66 victory at Viejas Arena in San Diego and take over the top spot in the conference standings by virtue of its winning percentage.
The Broncos (18-5, 14-4 MW), who were held to a season-low 17 points in the first half, finished with a season-high 16 turnovers.
“When you dig yourself that deep of a hole, it’s a long way back using a lot of energy,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said in a postgame Zoom interview. “Our guys left it all out there, it’s just that first half, they dictated and we dug ourselves a big hole because we were so soft for part of that first half. We adjusted and fixed it the second half. I’m proud of that.”
The Aztecs (18-4, 12-3) led 29-17 at halftime and by as many as 17 points, 37-20, with 17:37 to go in the second half before the Broncos worked their way back into contention.
Redshirt senior guard Derrick Alston Jr. scored Boise State’s first 11 points of the second half, but it took a 3-point barrage during a 17-2 run to finally pull the Broncos within one, 52-51, with 7:42 left. Emmanuel Akot made three of the Broncos’ five 3-pointers during that stretch and Alston accounted for the other two.
“I was just trying to do anything I could to kind of will my team back in and just kind of get us some energy and get us a little kick-start,” Alston said. “Shots were able to fall, and I was able to get a little bit of rhythm going.”
The Broncos eventually tied the game at 58-all with a triple from Alston at the 1:42 mark. Alston scored 22 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and finished 10-for-21 from the floor and 6-for-16 from deep.
“He was definitely the person that jump-started our comeback,” Boise State sophomore RayJ Dennis said of Alston. “I mean, him being our star guy — our elite NBA guy — it just fuels everybody and kind of gets everybody going, which you saw there. And actually, we’ve got to do a better job getting him more touches when he’s hot like that.”
Dennis forced overtime with a triple from the top of the arc with about 10 seconds to play that knotted the game at 63.
San Diego State did get one final chance to win the game in regulation, but Aztecs senior forward Matt Mitchell was called for a charge with 2 seconds remaining. Boise State did not have any timeouts left, so Dennis took the inbound pass, dribbled once and released a 3-pointer just across halfcourt. The ball hit the left side of the backboard as the clock ran out, sending the game to overtime.
But the Broncos looked depleted in the 5-minute overtime period, getting outscored 15-3. Mitchell paced the Aztecs with 24 points and nine rebounds, and senior guard Trey Pulliam matched his career high with 18 points.
“Oh, we’re eager, and they’re going to be eager, too,” Rice said. “These are two really, really good teams that showed up tonight. We were getting blasted and we didn’t lay down, and got it to overtime, but we didn’t have enough in the tank.”
The Broncos must win the second game of the series Saturday to have a chance at claiming the regular-season championship.
That game is scheduled for 2 p.m. MT on Saturday at Viejas Arena and will be televised on CBS Sports Network. Boise State wraps up its Mountain West regular-season schedule against Fresno State at 5 p.m. Tuesday (CBSSN) at ExtraMile Arena.
The top five teams in the regular-season standings receive a first-round bye in the Mountain West Tournament, which is scheduled for March 10-13 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“I’m really proud of the guys for just how we battled back in that second half and just had no quit in us,” Alston said. “That overtime, it just kind of didn’t go our way, and that happens. We’ve got another game here Saturday and ... how we played that second half is how we have to play the whole game, and I think we’ll be just fine.”
NO. 22 SAN DIEGO ST. 78, BOISE ST. 66 (OT)
BOISE ST. (18-5, 14-4 MW)
Armus 2-3 0-2 4, Kigab 1-10 3-5 5, Alston 10-21 3-3 29, Dennis 4-6 0-0 9, Shaver 0-4 0-0 0, Doutrive 4-10 0-0 10, Akot 3-8 0-0 9, Rice 0-4 0-0 0, Milner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-66 6-10 66.
SAN DIEGO ST. (18-4, 12-3 MW)
Mensah 2-3 1-2 5, Mitchell 8-17 8-8 24, Gomez 4-4 0-0 10, Pulliam 7-14 2-2 18, Schakel 1-6 3-4 6, Seiko 0-3 2-2 2, Tomaic 3-6 0-0 7, Butler 1-5 2-2 4, Johnson 1-1 0-1 2, Arop 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-60 18-21 78.
Halftime—San Diego St. 29-17. 3-Point Goals—Boise St. 12-40 (Alston 6-16, Akot 3-6, Doutrive 2-6, Dennis 1-2, Rice 0-3, Shaver 0-3, Kigab 0-4), San Diego St. 6-19 (Gomez 2-2, Pulliam 2-2, Schakel 1-2, Tomaic 1-3, Butler 0-2, Seiko 0-3, Mitchell 0-5). Fouled Out—Dennis. Rebounds—Boise St. 30 (Armus 9), San Diego St. 44 (Mitchell 9). Assists—Boise St. 16 (Kigab, Dennis 4), San Diego St. 8 (Gomez 3). Total Fouls—Boise St. 21, San Diego St. 15.
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 9:50 PM.
