Boise State basketball falls way short in chance to prove itself at Grand Canyon
Departing San Jose and taking a plane straight to Phoenix, the Boise State basketball team was keen on putting to rest some of the questions surrounding its ability and ceiling.
The Broncos had just pasted the Spartans 89-58 and were riding a four-game winning streak, after starting 1-5 in conference play.
But those questions came right back to the surface Friday night, when Boise State (13-9, 5-6 Mountain West) suffered an 86-69 defeat at Grand Canyon (14-7, 7-3) and continued a striking pattern: lose to the league’s good team, defeat the conference’s poor squads.
The Broncos trailed just 43-41 at halftime but fell away throughout the second half, making just six field goals in the final 20 minutes.
“We’ve made progress, but you’ve gotta have that fortitude to stick with it, stick with it, stick with it, and get each other shots,” Boise State coach Leon Rice told KBOI in his postgame interview. “We had 15 assists. But in a game like this, you need 20 assists.”
Boise State, sitting right in the middle of the standings, has four wins against the bottom four teams in the Mountain West. The Broncos are 1-6 against the six teams above them, now with two losses to Grand Canyon and only a home win over New Mexico.
The Antelopes blew out Boise State 75-58 at ExtraMile Arena on Jan. 7 behind an efficient 50% shooting effort. That shooting prowess carried over into Friday night’s game, as Grand Canyon began the game shooting 10-for-13 from the field, including a perfect 5-for-5 start from beyond the arc.
The home team finished 29-for-49 (59.2%) and made 9-of-15 3-pointers.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that can score. It’s not just one or two guys,” senior forward Javan Buchanan told KBOI. “Obviously, they have some leading scorers, but they have a lot of guys who can step up and are talented.”
Buchanan led the Broncos with 14 points, but he shot just 3-for-10 while going a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line. However, four players for Grand Canyon exceeded Buchanan’s point total, including three with 16 points, and senior guard Jaden Henley scored a game-high 20 — 18 of them in the second half.
The Broncos countered the Antelopes’ offense in the opening stages of the game by simply not giving them many scoring chances. Boise State committed zero turnovers throughout the first 10 minutes and led 26-24 at the midpoint of the first half.
However, as the infamous “Havocs” student section got more into the game, the mistakes began piling up for Boise State. Over the remainder of the half, the Broncos committed five turnovers and would have been down by even more at the break if not for a high-arching 3-pointer at the buzzer from Buchanan.
Boise State then didn’t score a field goal until just under six minutes into the second half, and didn’t hold a lead for the rest of the game. They’d finish the half shooting 6-for-24 and were 21-for-53 (39.6%) for the game.
“In an atmosphere like this, when a team, the way they play in here, you’ve got to respond to and weather about eight or nine storms, and we probably weathered five or six,” Rice told KBOI. “And then the second half, we didn’t weather them very good.”
The stark difference between the first and second halves was most visible in the play of junior forward Andrew Meadow.
Meadow enjoyed a productive 3-for-4 shooting performance in the first half, including making both of his 3-point attempts. However, he didn’t take a single shot in the second half despite playing 10 minutes.
The Antelopes limited Meadow in the first meeting earlier this season, too, holding him to a 2-for-2 night.
“Our guys have to do a better job,” Rice said. “One time (Meadow’s) standing in the corner, wide open, and we don’t find him.”
Boise State will return home for a quick turnaround against Nevada on Tuesday night at ExtraMile. The Wolf Pack (16-6, 8-3) are one of those teams in the top part of the standings, and they defeated BSU 81-66 in the conference opener way back before the Christmas break, on Dec. 20.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 10:41 PM.
