Boise State uses hellacious offensive rebounding to win three-for-all vs. Aztecs
A couple of days before Boise State basketball left the familiar confines of ExtraMile Arena to head to Las Vegas for the Mountain West Tournament, head coach Leon Rice was asked how the Broncos would approach facing San Diego State in the quarterfinals.
Boise State lost both games to the Aztecs in the regular season. They stuffed the Broncos inside with numbers and size while limiting them to a combined 10-for-48 from 3-point range.
Rice’s response to being asked how they’d approach Thursday’s game: “Good question.”
As it turned out, Boise State’s solution was to commit to shooting from three and win the rebound battle — an interesting approach for the Mountain West’s second-worst shooting team.
And it worked like a charm. Despite still only shooting 11-for-40 from 3-point range on Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, No. 5 seed Boise State (23-9) outhustled No. 4 San Diego State (21-9) to win 62-52 and keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
“I don’t think, in my coaching career, I’ve basically said no comment,” Rice said after the game. “That was an adjustment for us. We’re one of the best two-point field goal teams. Our style did not match up with their style defensively. And so we had to adjust.”
Boise State tied a school record on Thursday, hoisting 40 3-point attempts into the air. However, the Broncos shot 27.5%. In the regular season, they shot 31.5% from three, nearly the worst mark in the league.
Boise State’s first 12 shots were from beyond the arc, and the Broncos didn’t score a 2-point basket until over 10 minutes into the game. Rice said the team’s target was to shoot between 36 and 50 3-pointers.
Senior guard Alvaro Cardenas sunk four of those 3-pointers, including a step-back dagger in the first half’s final seconds to enter the break trailing 33-28.
“They’re the number one team in the country in blocked shots, so it is really hard to score 2-pointers against them,” Cardenas said. “Our game plan was to not pass up shots, and whenever we had an open three, we were going to shoot them and try to spread them out a little bit.”
Cardenas led four players in double figures, scoring 16 points. Tyson Degenhart added 14, Andrew Meadow 12 and Pearson Carmichael 10. Meadow and Carmichael combined for seven of the offensive rebounds.
Despite its less-than-optimal shooting, Boise State rode a strong defensive effort, all of its rebounding, and a balanced scoring attack to knock out what has perennially been the conference’s best tournament team. The Aztecs (21-9) had a streak of seven straight appearances in the Mountain West title game; they won three of those.
Boise State outrebounded San Diego State 40-28 and scored 18 second-chance points to the Aztecs’ three.
“San Diego State and Boise (State) always comes down to rebounding, and I think that’s the key to the game,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said.
“Their second chance opportunities were the difference in the game,” he continued. “And we didn’t get enough of them, so we missed shots and didn’t get second chance opportunities, and they missed shots and found ways to run down long rebounds.”
Defensively, the Broncos matched SDSU’s physicality, limiting the Aztecs to 38% shooting (18-for-47) and holding them without a field goal for the final 9 minutes of the game.
“I think all of us felt very, very prepared with what they were going to run,” Degenhart said. “And whenever something was called, we had an idea what it was going to be.”
Up next for the Broncos will be regular season champion New Mexico in the semifinals, as they try to fight their way to a Mountain West championship and automatic bid to the 68-team field. Short of that, back-to-back wins over the Aztecs and top-seeded Lobos would go a long way toward an at-large berth, which would mark their fourth tourney bid in a row.
Boise State will play New Mexico in the semifinals on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Mountain time. The Lobos (27-6) are the defending conference tournament champions.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM.
