LAS VEGAS – Boise State is heading back to the Mountain West semifinals for the second straight year after a thrilling 87-76 overtime win over UNLV on Thursday night at the Thomas and Mack Center.
The Broncos blew a 22-point lead, survived a last-second game-tying shot and won it in overtime to advance to Friday night’s semifinals against Utah State.
The Broncos also erased any doubt about their status for the NCAA Tournament: they are going dancing.
Naje Smith had 18 points, including six in overtime, to lead five players in double figures for the Broncos, who led 50-34 at the half but needed overtime to finish it off thanks to a crazy 3-pointer from Shane Nowell with 1.0 seconds left which tied the game at 73.
“What a ballgame,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said as he let out a big sigh of relief. “We’ve all talked about how great this league is and it’s showing with every single one of these games. I mean that game was – wow. The swings you saw in that game, I don’t know if we could have played better in the first half, but we couldn’t completely shake them. You can’t beat a team like that in the first half on their home court, you aren’t going to knock them out and we knew that.
“Down the stretch they made some big plays…but our guys are so resilient and we talked about, ‘hey we have to go win it twice’ and that’s what we did. These guys made some huge plays. I don’ think (UNLV) scored for four minutes in overtime. What a great college basketball game. Two really good teams, and credit to our guys for their resiliency and toughness to get that done.”
Marcus Shaver Jr. had 17 points and eight rebounds, Chibuzo Agbo and Tyson Degenhart each had 16 points and Max Rice added 12 for the Broncos, who shot 10 of 14 from 3-point range en route to a 50-point first half but struggled from the outside and scored just 23 points in the second half.
The Broncos outscored UNLV 14-3 in overtime, taking the lead on a 3-pointer from Smith and never looking back to avoid what would have been a brutal loss given the early lead.
Fans of both Utah State and New Mexico, who were playing in the next game, cheered loudly for UNLV in the second half. But the Broncos somehow regrouped in the huddle prior to overtime and quieted the crowd with a quick start to the final five minutes.
The Broncos rolled from there, likely locking up a trip to the NCAA Tournament and staying alive for back-to-back Mountain West Tournament titles.
“A lot of teams couldn’t do that under those circumstances,” Rice said. “When a team comes back on their home floor, and it got pretty loud, but these guys just kept fighting and found a way.”
The Broncos will play Utah State at 10 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network. The two teams split the two regular season meetings, with the Aggies winning just seven days ago in Logan.
Below is our postgame coverage, including the Lithia Ford of Boise Postgame Show and our postgame interviews…
