Round 2 of Boise State vs. Colorado State goes down to the wire once again
A week from Saturday, Boise State and Colorado State could meet again with the Mountain West Tournament championship on the line.
If that third meeting happens and is anything like the first two, expect it to come down to the final seconds.
Colorado State completed the season sweep of Boise State with a 71-68 victory Saturday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Rams topped the Broncos in overtime on Feb. 13 in Boise and are the only team to beat the Broncos twice this season.
“It’s gonna give us a lot of fuel to the fire,” Boise State’s Abu Kigab said. “It was a tough loss, obviously, and we’ve just got to go back and respond on Thursday in our first game (at the Mountain West Tournament).”
Although the loss certainly doesn’t sit well with the Broncos (24-7, 15-3 MW), they had already locked up the Mountain West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed at the upcoming league tournament in Las Vegas.
Colorado State earned the No. 2 seed, putting the Rams (24-4, 14-4) on the opposite side of the bracket and setting up a potential rematch next week at the Thomas & Mack Center if both teams survive.
“The Mountain West is unbelievable. We’ve got very strong teams throughout,” Kigab said. “We don’t disappoint. We come out and play hard every single night, and I think that’s a characteristic every team has when you really look down the line.”
Boise State won’t play again until the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament. The Broncos’ opener will be at 1 p.m. Mountain time Thursday against the winner of the No. 8 Nevada vs. No. 9 New Mexico game at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Boise State coach Leon Rice is confident his players will be able to put Saturday’s loss behind them.
“We’ll fight,” he said. “When haven’t they?”
On senior night in front of a sold-out crowd at Moby Arena, the Broncos fought back from as much as an 11-point deficit. They took their first lead, 66-65, with 2:38 remaining in the game on a layup from Mladen Armus.
Kigab gave Boise State its final lead of the game, at 68-67, courtesy of a putback with 1:28 on the clock. The Rams responded with a bucket on their end from James Moors, and Boise State called a timeout trailing 69-68 with 46.4 seconds left.
The Broncos emerged from the timeout and got freshman Tyson Degenhart an open look from 3-point range, but the shot bounced off the rim and out of bounds.
Both teams then took turns committing turnovers, and the Rams missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 18.4 seconds left before junior forward David Roddy pulled down the offensive rebound.
After a Colorado State timeout with 15.3 seconds to go, the Broncos immediately fouled with the Rams in the bonus, sending Kendle Moore to the free-throw line. He made both free throws.
As it has so many times this season, Boise State put the ball in Marcus Shaver Jr.’s hands, but his 3-point try at the buzzer was off the mark. Shaver has made a 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds of four different games this season that either tied the score or gave Boise State the lead.
Roddy led all scorers with 23 points on 10-for-17 shooting, and 15 of his points came in the second half. The Rams shot 54.9% (28-for-51) from the floor and racked up 40 points in the paint against one of the top defensive teams in the country.
Kigab led three Broncos in double figures with 15 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Max Rice added 11 points, including a 3-for-4 performance from beyond the arc, and Shaver totaled 13 points.
NOTES: The Broncos’ three conference losses tied the school record for fewest in a single season with the 1987-88 and 1988-89 squads. ... Boise State’s conference winning percentage of .833 is a program record.
COLORADO ST. 71, BOISE STATE 68
BOISE STATE (24-7, 15-3 MW): Armus 2-5 5-5 9, Degenhart 4-6 0-0 8, Kigab 7-11 1-1 15, Akot 3-8 0-0 6, Shaver 5-12 2-3 13, Rice 4-5 0-0 11, N.Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Kuzmanovic 2-2 0-0 6, Milner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-51 8-9 68.
COLORADO ST. (24-4, 14-4 MW): Thistlewood 2-3 0-0 4, Jacobs 0-2 0-0 0, Moore 7-9 2-3 19, Stevens 4-10 2-2 12, Roddy 10-17 3-3 23, Tonje 3-5 3-4 9, Moors 1-2 0-0 2, Rivera 1-2 0-0 2, Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Lake 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-51 10-12 71.
Halftime—Colorado St. 41-36. 3-Point Goals—Boise St. 6-20 (Rice 3-4, Kuzmanovic 2-2, Shaver 1-4, N.Smith 0-1, Degenhart 0-2, Kigab 0-2, Akot 0-5), Colorado St. 5-14 (Moore 3-5, Stevens 2-4, Thistlewood 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Tonje 0-1, Roddy 0-2). Rebounds—Boise St. 22 (Kigab 6), Colorado St. 23 (Moore, Moors 5). Assists—Boise St. 13 (Kigab 5), Colorado St. 16 (Stevens 7). Total Fouls—Boise St. 16, Colorado St. 15. A—8,083 (8,745).
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 8:56 PM.
