‘I can’t wait to see where we go.’ Freshmen carry Boise State to win over San Jose State
A pair of freshman standouts took turns leading the Boise State women’s basketball team on Saturday.
Mya Hansen and Dani Bayes each scored a game-high 19 points to carry the Broncos to a 73-62 victory over San Jose State in the Broncos’ Mountain West opener at ExtraMile Arena.
Bayes scored 16 points in the first half, while Hansen netted 16 in the second half as freshmen accounted for 63% of Boise State’s scoring against the Spartans.
“I think we definitely have a great freshman class here,” Hansen said. “You can see our growth throughout the whole season, so I can’t wait to see where we go as we continue. But we know any person on this team can score or anybody can play defense, which is great to know that we have such a variety.”
The Broncos rode a dominant first half to the victory, outscoring the Spartans 24-11 in the first quarter and taking a 38-20 halftime lead. San Jose State shot just 24% from the field in the first half and could not contend with the Broncos inside.
Boise State finished with a 51-30 advantage on the boards.
“Abby (Muse) and Elodie (Lalotte) both rebound the ball really well, and Abby had some huge rebounds down the stretch of the game,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said. “They’re incredibly physical, so we knew it would be a tough matchup, but I thought we rebounded well.”
On her first basket of the game with 6:39 on the clock in the first quarter, Lalotte surpassed 500 career points. The junior forward from Paris, France, finished with six points and a team-leading 12 rebounds.
“She’s done a great job for us. She’s getting better and better,” Presnell said. “People don’t realize she’s got two years left. She’s a junior, but she still has a COVID year, too.”
After trailing by as many as 21 points — 38-17 with 2:08 remaining in the second quarter — the Spartans steadily chipped away at the Broncos’ lead over the final 20 minutes.
San Jose State held Boise State without a field goal for nearly 5 minutes to pull within 60-57 on a putback from Aarion Nichols with 4:29 to play in the fourth quarter.
But the Broncos closed with a 13-5 run, including eight points from Hansen, to end the threat.
“We definitely stayed together when the game got close,” Bayes said. “I think that was our main key that we’ve been trying to focus on, especially the past couple weeks, is just staying together as a team and fighting through adversity and I think that’s exactly what we did. They didn’t get up at any point, so I think that’s a big win for us.”
With Saturday’s victory, the Broncos won back-to-back games for the first time this season. They’ll now try to make it three in a row when they continue Mountain West play next week.
Boise State travels to Utah State next Saturday, Jan. 7. Tipoff is 2 p.m. at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah, and the game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network.
Notes: Bayes’ 19 points established a new career high. ... After suffering an injury during a preseason scrimmage, freshman Tatum Thompson saw her first career action Saturday against the Spartans. Thompson, who is from Woodinville, Washington, totaled three points and two rebounds in six minutes of action.
