With ‘courageous, tough’ effort, Shaver Jr. plays through injury for Boise State
It was not the way fifth-year senior Marcus Shaver Jr. wanted to go out.
But his final game in a Boise State uniform played out a bit like the season itself.
Shaver went down with an ankle injury with 2:33 remaining in the first half. He was helped off the court bearing little weight on his right foot.
But as he’s done all season, the Phoenix native got taped up and returned for the second half Thursday in Boise State’s 75-67 loss to Northwestern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Golden 1 Center.
“You hate to see a senior have to go out that way, but he tried for these guys,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “I mean, it was a bit of a miracle to get him back for the second half, to tell you the truth. But he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He was going to try to be out there for these guys.”
Shaver finished with 12 points — 10 of which came in the second half — nine rebounds and four assists, but he clearly wasn’t himself, going just 4-for-12 from the floor with two turnovers and four personal fouls.
It was not the first time that Shaver has been hampered by an injury to his right ankle. He missed five games this season due to the nagging injury.
Shaver concludes his career 19th in school history in scoring with 1,106 points. He passed Reggie Larry (1,098) on Boise State’s all-time scoring list. Including his two seasons at Portland, he finishes with 1,974 points in his collegiate career.
“The hardest thing for me is I know who Shaver is and I know how good he is. Not just tonight, but throughout the year, he’s had so many bad breaks. He’s got a lot of great breaks coming, I think,” Rice said. “But that’s the only thing that really makes you — that you have regrets about — is that poor kid. These guys have practiced with him, played with him over the years. They know, like, what a great shooter he is. He never really got to cut loose this year like we thought he really would because he was held back by a lot of that stuff. Then he kept reinjuring his ankle.
“But credit to him. He’s courageous, he’s tough, and he didn’t want to let these guys down.”
Junior college transfers Naje Smith and Lukas Milner also played their final games for Boise State on Thursday, leaving the Broncos with three returning starters next season.
“Not to move on to next year quite yet, but we got some great guys coming in,” Rice said. “We have a terrific nucleus coming back. Probably three all-league players coming back, some great freshmen players coming in. There will be some more. We’re going to be pretty special.”
