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Important home stand
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It’s gut-check time for the Boise State University Men’s basketball team this week when they host Western Athletic Conference foes New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech.
The Broncos 12-5 (3-2 WAC) started WAC play on a high note by winning their first three conference games, but the road woes continued to plague the team when they traveled to conference powerhouses Nevada and Utah State.
“I’ll say it was a rough weekend. We got behind early in both games, made a few runs but weren’t able to get over the hump,” Boise State head coach Greg Graham said. “It’s going to be a wild season in the WAC. If you don’t play well you will lose on the road or at home because the entire conference is that good right now.”
The road trip was highly important to the Broncos. Not only was it their biggest hurdle for the remainder of the season, but they also played against the conference’s two best teams on their home courts.
Against Nevada, the Broncos kept it close in the first half and well into the second half at one time trailing only 59-54 with 6:23 left in the game. But Nevada 11-7 (4-1 WAC) scored the next nine points to put the game out of reach, eventually leading to a 77-63 Nevada win.
Utah State 17-1 (5-0 WAC) added onto their home court-winning streak by defeating the Broncos 79-65 for their 28th consecutive home court victory in front of a sellout crowd of 10,270. Utah State forward Tai Wesley dominated the Broncos in the paint, scoring 26 points and leading all scorers.
Boise State might have lost more than just the game when leading scorer and arguably the Broncos’ best player, senior Mark Sanchez was injured two minutes into the game during a freak play when he stepped on a photographer who was sitting too far out on the court.
Sanchez sprained his ankle and was ineffective for the remainder of the game.
“Sanchez not playing hurt us quite a bit against Wesley from an offensive standpoint,” Graham said. “He plays very physical and knows how to get the ball into the basket. Physically we did not match up well with him.”
If the Broncos want to remain one of the WAC’s top tier teams they must get Sanchez back in time for their next two home games, which have turned into crucial games early in conference play.
“His swelling is going down which looks very good for us. It still is bothering him but is getting steadily better,” Graham said. “I have never seen anything like that in my 30 years of coaching. That could happen to anyone, unfortunately it happened to Mark.”
Playing without Sanchez might prove to be too big of a task for a young Boise State team to overcome, but playing at home has seemed to help the Broncos thus far as they are 9-1 at Taco Bell Arena this season.
TRENT LOOTENS
Arbiter Journalist
