‘We’re still not done’: Boise State wins Mountain West title, looks to finish in style
In traditional fashion, Leon Rice took the scissors and made the final cut of the net.
After Rice descended the ladder, Abu Kigab tried to put the net around Rice’s neck, but the Boise State head coach wasn’t having it.
“It’s their championship,” Rice said. “My nerves tonight were about them, just how bad I wanted it for them. I could taste it.”
On senior night one year ago, Kigab left ExtraMile Arena with his arm in a sling. On Tuesday, the fifth-year senior wore a net around his neck as the Boise State men’s basketball team showed off the first outright Mountain West regular-season championship trophy in program history after a 73-67 win over Nevada.
“When I talk about Abu, I’m talking about our team,” Rice said. “He represents all those guys. If I had 23 nets, they all get one, because the job they did was amazing. It’s on them. It is. They made the plays. They had the toughness. They responded. I was their guide. That’s it.”
It was the Broncos’ school-record 15th conference victory and came in front of a season-high 11,954 fans, some of whom skirted the half-inch thick roping that security set up to discourage a wild celebration on the hardwood once the league title officially belonged to the Broncos.
But this celebration was long overdue.
In 2014-15, Boise State shared the regular-season title with San Diego State, but the Broncos had not won an outright conference championship in any league since doing so in the Big Sky in the 1987-88 season.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since I got to college,” Kigab said. “All I wanted to do was win a conference championship, go to the tournament and make as deep a run as possible. Our dreams are coming true, and we’re still not done yet.”
The Broncos achieved their dream climbing one rung of the ladder at a time — literally.
Following a 3-4 start, Rice wrote out the Broncos’ remaining schedule on the whiteboard in the locker room, making it look like a ladder. Once the team got a good look at the journey ahead, Rice erased all but the next team on the schedule, adding one team at a time, until the climb was complete.
“We put it on the board when we were 3-4 and we said: ‘We can win every game. Let’s do it,’” Rice said. “We can’t win them all at one time, but one at a time we can go win. And they were dialed in to that and they were all nodding their heads.”
The Broncos (24-6, 15-2 MW) collected a program-record 14 straight wins on their way up the ladder, with only two more losses. They’re now one victory away from tying the team’s single-season record for wins. The last regular-season game is Saturday at Colorado State, which beat Boise State in ExtraMile Arena on Feb. 13.
“Oh man, it’s just unreal,” redshirt senior Marcus Shaver Jr. said. “It feels good to get this championship after the season we had last year. It’s just a great feeling. This team deserves it.”
Boise State will be the No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, which runs March 9-12 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Broncos open tournament play at 1 p.m. Mountain time on Thursday, March 10, against the winner of the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game.
And for the first time in years, the Broncos won’t enter the league tournament sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Bracketologists are bullish on the Broncos, who are currently one spot outside The Associated Press Top 25 Poll and seem a lock for a bid.
Boise State will make its first March Madness appearance since 2015 for the same reason Kigab and Rice squabbled over who should don the net. Each man believes the other to be more worthy.
“It’s special, and it shows up in how unselfish we play,” Rice said. “They’re all playing for the cause, and the crown was the cause. And that’s what they all played for all year long — each other.”
The Broncos complete conference play with that road trip to Fort Collins, Colorado. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Moby Arena, and the game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, or listen on the radio on 670 AM.
“We’ve proven that we’re good because of the teams that we’ve been able to beat,” Rice said. “We’ve got one more (regular season) game, and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
NOTES: With Nevada (12-16, 6-11) attempting to close as much as a 13-point gap in the second half, Kigab came through down the stretch. He scored nine of Boise State’s final 13 points, including a three-point play with 3:55 to go after Nevada had pulled within one, at 66-65. Kigab finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting and added four rebounds, three assists and three steals. ... The Broncos had a season-high 10 steals by halftime and finished the game with 14. ... This season’s conference championship is the Broncos’ seventh regular-season title in program history. Boise State shared titles in 2014-15 (MW), 2007-08 (WAC), 1998-99 (Big West), 1988-89 (Big Sky) and 1975-76 (Big Sky), in addition to the outright title in 1987-88. ... ExtraMile Arena issued an apology on social media for the actions taken by some of its security guards while students stormed the court Tuesday night. A third-party investigator will review the “physical interactions” involving security and students, the statement said.
BOISE STATE 73, NEVADA 67
NEVADA (12-16, 6-11 MW): Coleman 1-3 0-0 2, Baker 5-9 2-3 13, Blackshear 6-10 2-3 16, Cambridge 4-10 0-0 9, Sherfield 4-11 2-2 10, Washington 5-6 2-2 12, Foster 1-2 2-2 5, Hymes 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-52 10-12 67.
BOISE ST. (24-6, 15-2 MW): Armus 3-5 1-2 7, Degenhart 3-7 0-0 8, Kigab 9-12 3-4 23, Akot 6-11 1-1 16, Shaver 5-14 5-6 16, Rice 0-3 0-0 0, N.Smith 1-2 1-2 3, Milner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-54 11-15 73.
Halftime—Boise St. 41-35. 3-Point Goals—Nevada 5-20 (Blackshear 2-4, Baker 1-2, Foster 1-2, Cambridge 1-6, Hymes 0-1, Coleman 0-2, Sherfield 0-3), Boise St. 8-22 (Akot 3-6, Kigab 2-4, Degenhart 2-5, Shaver 1-3, N.Smith 0-1, Rice 0-3). Rebounds—Nevada 29 (Washington 6), Boise St. 24 (Armus 8). Assists—Nevada 10 (Sherfield 6), Boise St. 11 (Kigab, Akot, Shaver 3). Total Fouls—Nevada 17, Boise St. 14. A—11,954 (12,480).
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 9:02 PM.
