-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
BSU lands comeback win, advances to round two
Archive
Comments
Story
For the Boise State men’s basketball team things didn’t start out so well at the Western Athletic Conference tournament. The Broncos missed their first seven three-point attempts and shot a woeful 24 percent from the field in the first half against Fresno State on Thursday night. Thankfully for BSU, Fresno State missed its first eight three-point attempts and didn’t get a chance to run away with the game early on in the contest.
BSU was getting good opportunities to score; they were just unable to finish at the basket throughout the first half and went into the break trailing by 14.
But the second half was a completely different story from the get-go. The Broncos rattled off the first seven points of the second half to cut that 14-point lead down to single digits.
To make matters worse for Fresno State its star player Quinton Hosley was caught throwing an elbow at BSU guard Coby Karl. Hosley was immediately given a technical foul and ejected after the referees reviewed the video footage on the courtside replay television.
“I thought they made the right call,” BSU Head Coach Greg Graham said.
The elbow apparently wasn’t instigated by Karl either, because he wasn’t expecting it.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Karl said. “I was behind him trying to push him under the basket and think he was a little frustrated. I don’t know what it was throughout the whole game or what not, but he just swung with his right elbow and got me in the back of the head.”
Hosley’s ejection may have sealed Fresno State’s fate right then and there.
“I think it’s a big impact,” Graham said about Hosley’s ejection. “However I thought we started to rally and come back on them. We scored the first seven of the half to take their lead from 14 down to seven while he was still in there. But anytime you take a player of that caliber off the team, it has an impact on both teams. He’s a very good player and he’s an all-league player for a reason.”
The Broncos started the half on a 17-7 run, combined with Hosley’s ejection, it seemed that BSU was in control from about 15 minutes on in.
The Broncos took the lead with a little under seven minutes to play at 62-60 and only trailed one more time from that point.
Bronco forward Reggie Larry led the way with 18 points as BSU pulled away to a 78-73 victory.
“Well obviously I was very proud of our guys and the way they came back in the second half,” Graham said. “We got off to a slow start and we couldn’t make a basket and it got away from us towards the end of the first half. But it’s like our games have been with them for the past couple years, they beat us twice at their place one of them at the buzzer. We won one at the foul line at our place and then once on a neutral court in another tight one. They’re just always good ball games.”
Boise State also got 15 points from WAC Freshman of the Year Anthony Thomas and 14 from Karl. The Broncos will play New Mexico State in the late game (8:30 p.m. MT) Friday night.
KYE JOHNSON
Assistant Sports Editor
