Defense saves the day as Boise State claims first Mountain West Tournament title
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March Madness for Boise State
Mountain West champion Boise State is a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos open play against Memphis in Portland.
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Defense saves the day as Boise State claims first Mountain West Tournament title
Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice will tell you the Broncos hang their hat on defense.
Saturday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center, the Broncos had no choice.
Boise State got two defensive stops over the final 28.9 seconds to hold off San Diego State 53-52 for the program’s first Mountain West Tournament championship. The Broncos earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, although they were already a lock, according to bracketologists.
“It’s only fitting that this team bows their neck and is able to get a stop on that last possession against a tough team,” Rice said. “… That’s so typical of this group. … Whatever’s needed, they step up and do.”
Boise State will learn its NCAA Tournament seed and destination Sunday. The selection show announcing the 68-team field begins at 4 p.m. Mountain time on CBS. It will be Boise State’s eighth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since the 2014-15 season.
“Well, it’s funny. When you guys said we’re in the tournament, I was like, ‘Oh yeah,’ ” Rice said. “We just really haven’t gone there in our minds, and I forgot about the automatic bid that was involved. It was just about the competition today, really, and that’s what’s made us good.”
With Saturday’s victory, Boise State (27-7) becomes just the fifth team in Mountain West history to win the outright regular-season and tournament titles, joining San Diego State (2006, 2021), New Mexico (2013) and Nevada (2017). It is also the Broncos’ first conference tournament championship since 2008.
And the 2021-22 Broncos could cement themselves as the best in program history — if they haven’t already — by earning the school’s first NCAA Tournament win. The Broncos are 0-7 in March Madness action, having suffered a one-point loss to Dayton in their most recent appearance.
Unity is what got the Broncos to this moment.
“Everyone cares about the team, and guys are willing to sacrifice whatever it takes,” said Boise State’s Abu Kigab, who was named Mountain West Tournament MVP. “We all know that in order to win, you have to sacrifice, and the guys have done a tremendous job of that. It’s who we are. I can’t lie to you. It’s who we are. We’ve got good guys from top to bottom, and it’s just an unbelievable group. It’s rare to be on a team like this, because not many people are willing to make those sacrifices in order to win.
“Sometimes you can be on a team that’s not doing well and you can average 20 (points per game) and it’s whatever. But when you’re winning, it’s a whole different thing.”
Fellow Boise State senior Emmanuel Akot was one of those Broncos who sacrificed against the Aztecs. Akot went down with an ankle injury shortly before halftime and had to go to the locker room to have it taped.
He started the second half anyway and stayed on the court because he didn’t want to let his teammates down.
“Credit to the warriors that I get to coach,” Rice said. “(Akot) twists his ankle pretty bad, went to the locker room, and I just knew he’d be back and ready and he gave his teammates everything he has. I hate singling one guy out, because every one of them does it.”
When Tyson Degenhart’s number was called, he came up big, too. The freshman forward from Spokane made several key plays in the final 3 minutes of the game.
First he drew a San Diego State charge and responded on the other end with a left-handed, turnaround scoop shot in the key that gave Boise State a three-point lead, 53-50, with 2:20 to play.
After Matt Bradley made a jumper in the paint to pull San Diego State within 53-52 with 1:51 remaining, Boise State redshirt senior Marcus Shaver Jr. was called for a charge on a made layup.
What came next required a total team effort.
The Aztecs got the ball back down one with 28.9 seconds left. Bradley released an acrobatic shot in the key — with Degenhart’s hand in his face — that grazed off the front of the rim. SDSU was able to grab the rebound and kick it back out to Trey Pulliam, whose running floater clanked off the iron as the Broncos ran toward center court in celebration.
“We’ve been in those situations so many times throughout the year, and I was confident in my guys,” Kigab said. “When you have experience in those situations, it gives you the confidence to go out there and execute with a free mind, and that’s what the guys did.”
Degenhart paced Boise State with 13 points — the most by a BSU freshman in a conference tournament title game since 1999 — four rebounds and two assists, while Kigab chipped in 11 points, three assists and three rebounds. Akot, who joined Kigab on the all-tournament team, totaled 10 points and six rebounds. Max Rice grabbed a team-best nine rebounds off the bench.
“I just can’t say enough about these guys,” Kigab said. “The unity, the commitment, the determination and relentlessness. They just keep going, even when things aren’t going well. It’s just unbelievable, and I’m so happy to be a part of something special like this.”
The Broncos are headed to the NCAA Tournament after a 3-4 start that morphed into a program-record 14-game winning streak, a school-record 27 wins and a rare sweep of the Mountain West’s regular-season and tournament championships.
“We’re definitely happy that we punched our ticket,” Akot said, “but there’s a lot of work to be done still.”
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BOISE ST. 53, SAN DIEGO ST. 52
SAN DIEGO ST. (23-8): K.Johnson 0-2 0-2 0, Mensah 2-6 0-2 4, Bradley 6-17 3-4 17, Butler 5-6 3-3 16, Pulliam 3-10 0-0 6, Arop 3-5 0-0 6, Baker-Mazara 0-4 0-0 0, Seiko 0-2 0-0 0, Tomaic 1-4 0-0 3, Diabate 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-57 6-11 52.
BOISE ST. (27-7): Armus 3-5 1-1 7, Degenhart 5-11 0-1 13, Kigab 4-7 3-6 11, Akot 3-8 3-5 10, Shaver 2-10 3-4 8, Rice 1-5 2-4 4, Milner 0-0 0-0 0, N.Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Kuzmanovic 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-47 12-21 53.
Halftime—Boise St. 28-25. 3-Point Goals—San Diego St. 6-12 (Butler 3-3, Bradley 2-4, Tomaic 1-1, K.Johnson 0-1, Pulliam 0-1, Seiko 0-2), Boise St. 5-18 (Degenhart 3-5, Akot 1-4, Shaver 1-5, Kigab 0-2, Rice 0-2). Rebounds—San Diego St. 30 (Mensah 10), Boise St. 33 (Rice 9). Assists—San Diego St. 9 (Pulliam 3), Boise St. 9 (Kigab, Shaver 3). Total Fouls—San Diego St. 23, Boise St. 15.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 6:32 PM.
