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Broncos tournament bid ends in loss to Aggies
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Some people might tell you it was the home court advantage and some might say it was destiny. Whatever it was, Friday night was New Mexico State ’s night and the Boise State men’s basketball team found that out the hard way.
The Aggies shot 54 percent from the floor in the Western Athletic Conference semifinal game and Boise State never really had a chance.
Leading the way for the Aggie offensive attack was senior guard Elijah Ingram.
Ingram scored a game-high 25-points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field.
"He shoots that rainbow jumper and he goes up and it barely even moves the net," Graham said. "I thought they played very well and I thought they shot the ball extremely well. The three-ball really hurt us in the first half and kind of set the tone for them."
Reggie Larry had another solid game for Boise State, as he chipped in 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
But for the second night in a row part of the game play was overshadowed by drama.
With New Mexico State running away late in the game BSU guard Coby Karl chased Aggie Tyrone Nelson down on a fast break. Nelson went up for the lay-in and Karl came down hard on him with both hands in an attempt to block his shot.
Karl was immediately given an intentional foul, but that was only the beginning. New Mexico State Head Coach Reggie Theus stormed the court in what looked like an attempt to go after Karl. A little scuffle broke out but the teams were separated before anything escalated. Theus was given a technical foul for leaving the coaches box, but he did say after the game he felt the refs handled the situation well.
"I think the referees handled the situation very well," Theus said. "It was a veteran crew and they assessed me with the technical which I deserved. But I told them that the hard foul was coming because I watched how hard they fouled Hatila (Passos) the time before that and the refs did not asses a flagrant foul at that point."
"I thought the referees did a good job," Coach Graham said.
Theus explained himself for charging onto the court the way he did after the game by saying, "Actually it looks like I was running after Coby, but I was running after Tyrone, because I thought he hurt him."
"I was on the ground when I first saw the refs call the technical," Karl said. "Then I saw Reggie come out and yeah, I did think he was coming at me. But it turns out he wasn’t."
"Coby Karl is a great player," Theus said. "And obviously would not intentionally hurt anybody but it was certainly a difficult foul."
New Mexico State went onto win by a score of 88-69 and advanced to the WAC Championship game against Utah State tomorrow night.
Boise State ’s season is likely over but the slight chance of playing in the NIT still remains.
KYE JOHNSON
Assistant Sports Editor
