LOGAN, Utah – The Boise State men’s basketball team suffered an 86-73 loss at Utah State on Saturday evening at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
The snowstorm outside was about as the game was inside for the Broncos.
Boise State fell behind by as many as 20 points in the first half before rallying to cut the deficit to five in the final minutes. It wasn’t enough, as the Aggies picked up a win that likely puts them in the NCAA Tournament.
The Broncos, meanwhile, will be the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament and play the winner of No. 7 seed UNLV and No. 10 seed Air Force on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT in the quarterfinals.
“Proud of our guys and the way we fought in the second half,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “We got it to six. … Credit to Utah State, we knew they were going to play good tonight and they certainly did, but our guys battled.
“We know historically what this place has been like. It was a tough task tonight and they had a lot riding on it and I thought they played a real good game.”
Chibuzo Agbo had 18 points, Tyson Degenhart had 14 and Marcus Shaver Jr. and Max Rice each had 13 for the Broncos, who had just 11 assists on 25 baskets.
Utah State shot a blistering 57 percent from the field and got 24 points from Taylor Funk and 19 points from Steven Ashworth.
“We’re a better defensive team than that,” Rice said. “We just dug ourselves a hole in the first half.”
The Aggies were in most NCAA Tournament projections early Sunday morning, but ESPN still had them as the ‘first team out.’
Boise State, meanwhile, appears to still be comfortably in the field despite the loss. The Broncos stayed at No. 27 in the NET and have an impressive 11-6 record in Quad 1/Quad 2 games.
The Broncos finished the regular season with a 23-8 record and a second-place finish in the tough Mountain West. It’s been an impressive season to this point – but they aren’t done yet.
“Proud of the guys,” Rice said. “It’s a long grind. We beat every team in this league and that’s saying something. Last year we won the league outright and we didn’t do that. We won every (conference) home game. This team is accomplishing things, and there’s still a lot left to accomplish.”
Here’s the Lithia Ford of Boise Postgame Show and interviews with Leon Rice, Mac Rice and Chibuzo Agbo:
