They won by how much? ‘Pregnant with 3’s,’ Boise State finds its groove vs. Wyoming
When Boise State basketball’s Alvaro Cardenas charged down the court with less than 5 seconds left in the first half and dished the ball to freshman guard Julian Bowie on the perimeter, there was almost no suspense.
Everyone in ExtraMile Arena knew what was coming. Sure enough, Bowie’s 3-pointer hit nothing but net as the buzzer sounded.
That’s how hot Boise State has been this past week.
“Alv found me, and I just let it fly,” Bowie said.
The Broncos found their groove quickly on Tuesday night against Wyoming. For the third straight game, the offense could hardly be stopped, and the result was a lopsided win: 96-55.
Boise State (13-5, 5-2 Mountain West) throttled Wyoming (9-8, 2-4) at every turn, jumping out to an 18-5 lead, extending that to 50-21 at halftime and never being threatened while scoring at least 79 points for the third straight game.
The Broncos beat UNLV 81-59 at home last week before suffering a tough 81-79 loss in the final seconds at No. 25 Utah State on Saturday.
The run has followed two games in which the Broncos failed to eclipse 67 points, going back to Boise State’s 67-58 win at Wyoming on New Year’s Eve.
Sophomore forward Andrew Meadow led the charge on Tuesday and showed that cutting his trademark long hair has caused no harm — he scored 18 points and made 3-of-5 3-pointers. Bowie was not far behind, scoring a career-high 16 points thanks to 5-for-6 shooting beyond the arc.
“Coach jokes we were pregnant with 3’s,” senior guard Alvaro Cardenas said. “We really know we have a lot of good shooters on this team, and we know we can make them.”
Bowie’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer gave Boise State a tie for its highest-scoring first half of the season. The Broncos also scored 50 against NAIA opponent Corban.
“I think you’re seeing a team that’s kind of coming together in all aspects of the game,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. “I wasn’t just being positive about our shooting. I believed that, and they knew it because they’re too good of shooters.”
Much of Boise State’s offensive revival has come from its 3-point shooting. Before losing at Utah State over the weekend, the Broncos were shooting 29.9% from deep. They shot 50% Tuesday night (13-for-26) after shooting 53.8% (14-for-26) at Utah State. That season percentage is now up to 32.8%.
“I feel like shots weren’t falling that normally fall,” Bowie said of the past struggles. “It was just a matter of time before they did.”
Meanwhile, the 55 points given up by the Broncos marked the third-lowest total conceded all season — they allowed 51 vs. Texas Southern and 43 in the season opener against Oakland.
It took 38 minutes of game time before Wyoming matched the Broncos’ first-half point total. By that point, the Cowboys were trailing 91-50.
“I think our defense got everything (moving). The energy we played with on defense kind of carried over to our offense,” Rice said. “We had a great pace to our offense, but I thought it started with our defense.”
Boise State returns to play Friday night vs. New Mexico with a game at The Pit, a notoriously difficult venue for road teams, but a place the Broncos have navigated pretty well. They are 3-3 in their past six games in Albuquerque, including an 86-78 win last season.
The Lobos (14-4, 6-1) had won seven straight games before being upset Tuesday night at San Jose State by a 71-70 score.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 10:03 PM with the headline "They won by how much? ‘Pregnant with 3’s,’ Boise State finds its groove vs. Wyoming."
