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Broncos down Bengals in WNIT
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If you put up enough shots, a few are bound to go in – right?
Offense was at a premium Thursday for both teams during Boise State’s matchup with the Idaho State Bengals in the opening round of the WNIT.
The in-state opponents combined to shoot just 29.2 percent (42-of-144).
However, the Broncos started hitting their shots late, scoring 28 of the final 38 points for the 77-54 victory.
“I thought we just scrapped,” Boise State head coach Gordy Presnell said. “… I think we just knuckled down.”
With the win, the Broncos (24-7) move on to the WNIT’s second round, playing at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday at 4 p.m. It was the first national tournament postseason victory in school history.
Before the Broncos could even think about moving on, they had to start scoring some baskets.
The Broncos hit 12-of-41 attempts in the first half, taking a slight 32-28 lead into the locker room. They finished shooting 27-of-85 (31.8 percent) – a high number of shots, but one supported by the team’s 66 total rebounds, 27 on the offensive end.
“Sixty-six rebounds in a game is an amazing amount of rebounds,” Presnell said. “Twenty-seven offensive rebounds is an amazing amount of offensive rebounds. We took 85 shots, and that’s a lot of shots. It would’ve been nice to hit a few more of those.”
With each team struggling early on offense, neither led by more than two baskets in the first half. The Bengals (20-10) kept close, cutting the lead to four on a Bianca Cheever 3-pointer with 12:40 to play, making it 41-37.
Boise State then turned rebounds into possessions, responding with a 24-7 run to lead by 20 with less than 5 minutes to play.
“A lot of it was our defense,” forward Jackie Lee said. “Tasha (Harris) kept saying, ‘let our defense be our offense.’”
In a game with little offensive firepower, that was just what the Broncos needed, as they held the Bengals to 15-of-59 shooting (25.4 percent) and outrebounded them 66-44.