Boise State basketball led by 23 points at home over UNLV. Then lost in overtime
Embroiled in a tight overtime matchup with just 22 seconds left on the clock on Friday night, Boise State basketball needed to lean on its home court advantage to try to erase a four-point UNLV lead.
The only problem was, as the Broncos stood huddled in a timeout, the fans around them at ExtraMile Arena were heading for the exits.
And not many people could blame them.
The Broncos suffered the kind of spirit-crushing defeat on Friday that had fans almost certain of the game result before the final buzzer sounded. Despite Boise State (15-10, 7-7 Mountain West) leading by 23 points in the first half and by 17 with just nine minutes left in regulation, the Broncos lost 86-83 to UNLV (13-13, 8-6) in overtime.
“We didn’t close it out enough,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said after the game. “And they made every play they needed to make against us and every shot they needed to make.”
While the manner of the loss will hurt Bronco fans, the ramifications of the loss also feel significant. Boise State also lost in overtime to UNLV in January, meaning not only do the Broncos now sit a game behind the Rebels in the conference standings, but the Rebels also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Broncos sit in seventh in the conference standings and could be three games outside the top four — and the first-round bye in the conference tournament that a top-four spot rewards — by the end of the weekend.
What makes Friday night’s defeat so crushing is that it felt like a game that Boise State had no business losing.
Despite a slow start that saw Boise State lead just 10-3 through the first six minutes, the Broncos had held the visiting Rebels to a meager 1-for-11 shooting mark from the field. The solid defensive start was eventually rewarded with a huge 15-0 run that put Boise State ahead 32-9 with seven minutes left in the first half.
For those 13 minutes, the vibes inside ExtraMile Arena were great. Junior Drew Fielder continued his hot shooting streak by starting 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, freshman forward Spencer Ahrens was hitting 3’s and slamming dunks, and a packed crowd was bouncing during every timeout.
Fielder went on to finish the night 5-for-6 from 3-point range as he scored a team-high 27 points. His five 3-pointers tie a career-high, which he set last week against New Mexico, but he didn’t attempt a 3-point shot in the final 16 minutes of regulation plus overtime.
But the good times started to slip away in the final few minutes of the first half. A quick 6-0 run gave the Rebels some life, and they went on to narrow the Broncos’ lead to 11 points, 40-29, by halftime.
“It was crucial in the last five or six minutes of the first half, instead of being up 20, 23, and taking it further, they became the aggressor,” Rice said. “And they scored every possession almost down the stretch of that first half.”
Boise State seemed to have found its feet again in the second half and had extended its lead back up to 17 points, 64-47, with just nine minutes remaining.
But over the next three minutes, UNLV silenced the home crowd with a rapid 15-0 run spearheaded by 10 points from Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn to narrow the Broncos’ lead to 64-62. The junior guard scored a game-high 36 points, 25 of which came in the second half. He also scored 33 points against Boise State in January, the last time the two teams met.
“He sees us, and he gets excited… We guarded him really, really well, and he made shots,” Rice said. “So tip your hat to that.”
The pair of teams traded blows for the rest of regulation, with Gibbs-Lawhorn sinking the game-tying 3-point shot with 38 seconds left. Senior forward Javan Buchanan had a chance to restore the Broncos’ lead with a corner three with 13 seconds left, but could only clang his shot off the rim, while Gibbs-Lawhorn also missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Gibbs-Lawhorn’s miss meant the Broncos held some semblance of life, but judging by the mood shift around ExtraMile Arena, the game’s result felt like it had already been decided.
Fielder opened overtime with an easy lay-up, and a pair of Buchanan free throws gave the Broncos a three-point lead. Those free throws would summon the last cheers of the night from the home crowd, as UNLV went on a 7-0 run to take an 85-81 lead and prompt fans to start heading toward the exits.
The Rebels pulled in two easy offensive rebounds on their second-to-last offensive possession that ended in a huge dunk from forward Tyrin Jones that symbolized the final hammer blow.
By the time sophomore forward Pearson Carmichael fired off the potential game-tying shot, which he ultimately released after the buzzer, many of the fans who attended the game weren’t around to see it.
“It really comes from the defensive part,” Carmichael, who scored 16 points, said after the game. “We need to learn how to re-lock in and lock down, and not let anyone score on you.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Broncos moving forward. They next travel to conference-leading Utah State for an 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time kickoff on Wednesday. The Aggies defeated Boise State 93-68 in ExtraMile Arena in early January.
