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Broncos end home
stand on losing note
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The Boise State men’s basketball team split their weekend series, losing Saturday to Rice 87-75 in front of a crowd of 4,544 at the Taco Bell Arena.
It was too many missed opportunities in the first half, and too much Michael Harris in the second half for the Broncos during the weekend matinee game Saturday.
"We didn’t play well as a group in the second half," Boise State head coach Greg Graham said. " …They stepped it up. They’re an experienced team with big leaders and the seniors stepped it up and we couldn’t match their intensity and their toughness in the second half."
Harris scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half as the Owls (8-4, 3-1 Western Athletic Conference) outscored and out rebounded the Broncos (7-7, 1-2 WAC) throughout the game.
"When he (Harris) settles down and just stays with things that we are doing and things we ask him to do, things tend to really go for him," Rice head coach Willis Wilson said.
Rice had four players in double figures and out rebounded the Broncos by 14.
"We just got out hustled," BSU freshman forward Andrew Green said. "We can’t make [a] real excuse for why we lost, we just lost."
The Broncos got out to an early 11-6 lead, but that soon evaporated as Rice scored seven unanswered points and took a 34-30 lead into halftime. Coby Karl and Jermaine Blackburn combined for an atrocious four of 17 shooting in the first half.
"We missed layups," Graham said. "…We missed a ton of moneys early and we could have easily had an eight or ten point lead I think at halftime if we would have made our shots. But we didn’t and that kind of offset their turnovers to match it up and then we had a breakdown on defense."
Despite turning the ball over 12 times in the first half, the Owls shot 52 percent from the field.
Coming out of the half, Rice scored on nine of their first 11 possessions and found themselves up 59-43 with just over 11 minutes to play in the game. Harris accounted for ten of those points during the spurt, and kept the lead out of reach for the Broncos.
Unable to come back from the deficit, the Broncos went to a smaller lineup, which seemed to result in a difficulty to battle down low. Along with the Owls tough perimeter defense, the Broncos shot 31.4 percent from the field and only 64.3 percent from the foul line.
Blackburn lead the Broncos with 22 points, nine of those coming in the final three minutes of the game as he went to the free throw line four times during the stretch. Sophomores Seth Robinson (14 points, seven rebounds) and Karl (12 points, five assists) were the other two players in double figures for Boise State. Franco Harris scored eight.
Jason McKreith scored 11 for Rice, as J.R. Harrison and Lorenzo Williams (14 points) scored in double figures for the Owls.
On Thursday night, the Broncos needed a late rally as Tulsa erased a second half 18 points deficit to over take the Hurricane 72-71.
A commanding 44-32 halftime lead was gone due to a 30-8 Tulsa second half run.
The score was tied at 68 with 1:30 remaining, but late free throws by Eric Lane held off the Hurricane.
Blackburn led the Broncos with 20 points, and Karl contributed 19. Tez Banks pulled down 10 rebounds.
The weekend series was the final at Boise State for both Rice and Tulsa, as the two programs will head to Conference USA next season along with fellow WAC member’s UTEP and SMU. The Broncos began their WAC conference schedule with a loss to UTEP on New Year’s Day 91-77.
The Broncos finished their seven-game home stand with a 3-4 record. Boise State now heads off on the road this weekend with a game Thursday at Fresno State and Saturday at Nevada.
Trevor Horn
Sports Editor
