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Broncos on the road to finish regular season
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For a team with just two road wins in 11 games this season, heading to play the final home game of the season against the second best team in the conference. UTEP (23-7 overall, 14-4 Western Athletic Conference) is trying their darndest to fight for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, it doesn’t look too promising for the Boise State men’s basketball team Saturday night.
The Broncos are coming off a tough home game versus one of the most unbelievable individual performances last Sunday. La Tech’s super sophomore Paul Millsap scored 29 points and grabbed a WAC season-high 25 rebounds, but the Broncos used an all-around team game to beat the Bulldogs on season day.
UTEP has won three straight and is a tough cookie to play against, especially in their own house. The 15-2 record at home and 7-1 home record during WAC play will attest to that.
It’s up to Boise State to manage the tempo early. If they can run up and down, take (and make) quality shots, there is always a chance to play strong against a great Miners team.
UTEP leads the conference in scoring at 74.3 points per game, and is second in scoring defense, which amounts to the highest scoring margin in the WAC.
Regardless if it is Eric Lane or Coby Karl playing the point Saturday night, they will have their hands full. UTEP senior point guard Filiberto Rivera leads the WAC in assists with 7.15 per game and can connect from long-range, averaging 12.9 points per game.
Jason Ellis and Tez Banks will need to stay out of foul trouble, also. Omar Thomas, the big man down low for the Miners, is averaging 20.1 points per game and 6.5 boards for UTEP.
Despite the fact that the Miners have the second seed in the conference tournament all locked up, there is little doubt that they will play anything othe than full speed against Boise State. Nevada has all but showed up a bid into the Big Dance, so UTEP knows they must keep winning in order for the college basketball postseason god’s see them as doable team for the tournament.
That being said, what better way to end the regular season for the Broncos, then to stir the pot a bit with an upset win over an NCAA tournament quality team on the road.
With that said, this is the 2004-05 Boise State men’s basketball team. The same one that can look like they can hang with the big boys for one half against Nevada, only to look like they are a bottom -dwelling team just 20 minutes later.
Only time can tell if the Broncos have matured enough to take a quality win at home and turn it into a positive on the road.
The Broncos are currently in eight place in the conference. They can move into sole possession of seventh place with a win and two Hawaii losses. If the two teams finish in a tie, the Broncos have the tiebreaker if they beat the Miners. Boise State will not finish the regular season any higher than seventh, and cannot slip into the top tenth.
Full bracket coverage of the WAC tournament will be in Monday’s edition of The Arbiter, and an on-line recap of the Boise State games will be available.
Trevor Horn
Sports Editor
