‘It means a lot.’ Shaver Jr. joins 1,000-point club in Boise State’s win over UNLV
With one dribble and the flick of his wrist, Marcus Shaver Jr. became the 33rd player in Boise State history to surpass 1,000 career points.
The fifth-year senior from Phoenix, Arizona, reached the milestone with his first free throw of the night in a 73-69 victory over UNLV on Sunday at ExtraMile Arena.
Shaver had no idea he was even close to career mark until after the game.
“It means a lot, just being here at this program, playing for Coach, my teammates. It means a lot,” Shaver said. “I didn’t even know I scored 1,000, to be honest. I didn’t know I was that close until (Max Rice) told me. But it means a lot. I’m happy, but there’s other things we’re trying to achieve here.”
At the top of Shaver’s mind is another Mountain West championship. With Sunday’s victory, the Broncos (21-6, 11-3 MW) are alone in second place in the Mountain West standings, one game back of first-place San Diego State (21-5, 12-2) with four games remaining in the regular season.
“We really want it, obviously, we know the feeling of storming the court and winning it all,” Max Rice said. “We obviously want that again. That’s what we’ve been working towards. We’re not playing to get second.”
Shaver entered Sunday’s game ranked 27th nationally in career scoring. Combined with his two seasons at Portland, Shaver has 1,886 career points, including a game-leading 19 against the Rebels.
“If a guy gets to 1,000 points in a program, that’s quite an accomplishment, because they’ve been through a lot,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “Think about what he’s been through — the championship last year and all those great games and all those clutch shots and all the stuff he’s done this year playing through injuries. It’s impressive, and he’s left his mark on this program and he’ll be up on the wall someday with a lot of great ones.”
Shaver has developed a reputation for making clutch shots as a Bronco, and he did so again against UNLV.
Over the final 58 seconds of the game, Shaver went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line to help the Broncos weather a pair of UNLV 3-pointers that cut their lead to 69-66 with 43 seconds left and 71-69 with 8 seconds to go.
“We’ve got a group that’s pretty dang resilient,” Leon Rice said. “They just keep in the ring and keep fighting and pretty soon the punch lands and that’s the knockout. I’m really proud of them. These games in February are so hotly contested and so intense.”
The Broncos started the game shooting just 1-for-6 from the field and found themselves behind 9-4 with 15:51 on the clock in the first half. The Rebels knocked down six of their 11 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes and led by as many as seven points, 26-19, with 8:11 until the break.
But the Broncos held the Rebels to just six points the rest of the half to take a 38-32 lead into the locker room.
UNLV opened the second half with six unanswered points to tied the game at 38-all, and the Rebels kept within striking distance the rest of the way. Boise State’s largest lead of the night, 59-52 on a Naje Smith dunk, came with 6:15 remaining in the game.
The Rebels made four 3-pointers over the final 4:11 to put pressure on the Broncos, but Shaver made sure the Broncos didn’t crack.
“Those were two tough 3-pointers that we did not expect them to make,” Shaver said. “But we just kept our composure and knocked down free throws.”
Max Rice joined Shaver in double figures with 17 points and a team-leading eight boards. Smith added 13 points and Tyson Degenhart had 11 points and six rebounds. Lukas Milner came off the bench for nine points and two rebounds.
Boise State resumes Mountain West play Wednesday against New Mexico. Tipoff is 8:30 p.m. at ExtraMile Arena, and the game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1, or listen on the radio on KBOI 670 AM.
BOISE ST. 73, UNLV 69
Muoka 3-5 0-0 6, Gilbert 2-4 2-3 6, Harkless 4-11 5-7 14, Nowell 4-8 3-5 14, Webster 3-6 0-0 9, McCabe 3-9 0-0 9, Iwuakor 0-1 0-0 0, Hall 2-6 0-0 4, Johnson 3-5 0-0 7. Totals 24-55 10-15 69.
Degenhart 5-12 0-0 11, N.Smith 4-6 5-5 13, Agbo 1-7 0-0 2, M.Rice 6-11 3-5 17, Shaver 5-13 8-8 19, Milner 3-3 3-4 9, Whiting 1-3 0-0 2, Young 0-0 0-0 0, Kuzmanovic 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-56 19-22 73.
Halftime—Boise St. 38-32. 3-Point Goals—UNLV 11-26 (Webster 3-5, McCabe 3-6, Nowell 3-7, Johnson 1-2, Harkless 1-5, Hall 0-1), Boise St. 4-16 (M.Rice 2-5, Degenhart 1-3, Shaver 1-3, Kuzmanovic 0-1, Agbo 0-2, N.Smith 0-2). Fouled Out—Agbo. Rebounds—UNLV 30 (Iwuakor 6), Boise St. 30 (M.Rice 8). Assists—UNLV 11 (Webster, McCabe 3), Boise St. 10 (M.Rice, Shaver, Whiting 2). Total Fouls—UNLV 20, Boise St. 15. A—11,004 (12,480).
This story was originally published February 19, 2023 at 10:59 PM.
