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The Boise State men’s basketball team will face Saint Mary’s on Dec. 1 at the new Hero Arena inside Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls, multiple sources confirmed to Bronco Nation News on Monday.
The neutral site game is the night before a potential Mountain West championship game for the Boise State football team on Dec. 2.
Tip off is currently set for 7 p.m. on Dec. 1 and the game is expected to be televised nationally. Tickets are expected to go on sale on August 17th. Capacity is about 4,500. The Arena just opened within the last year.
Saint Mary’s finished last season with a 27-8 record and a final ranking of No. 13 at KenPom. The Gaels earned a No. 5 seed to the NCAA Tournament and beat VCU in the first round before falling to eventual national champion UConn in the round of 32.
The Gaels beat both San Diego State and Gonzaga last season.
CBSSports.com currently ranks Saint Mary’s No. 21 in its preseason rankings.
Boise State and Saint Mary’s last played in 2015 as part of a two-year series. Both teams picked up road wins, with the Broncos winning 82-71 at Saint Marys in 2015 and the Gaels winning 82-74 in Boise in 2014.
Adding Saint Mary’s is the latest game on what’s becoming another difficult nonconference schedule for the Broncos, who host San Francisco on Nov. 12, play at Clemson on Nov. 19th and will compete in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando over Thanksgiving weekend. Six of the eight teams headed to Orlando made the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Broncos are also expected to play Washington State at Spokane Arena on Dec. 21st, but the game has yet to be finalized.
Boise State went 24-10 last season and reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. The Broncos, who have never reached the Big Dance in three straight years, return a trio of starters and All-Mountain West candidates in Max Rice, Tyson Degenhart and Chibuzo Agbo.
The Broncos also added a trio of transfers in Cam Martin (Kansas), Omar Stanley (St. John’s) and Roddie Anderson (UC San Diego) and three freshmen in Andrew Meadow, Chris Lockett and Emmanuel Ugbo.
Boise State is currently on a 3-game Foreign Trip to Canada. The first game is tonight. Bronco Nation News is on the trip and will have full coverage starting with the Lithia Ford of Boise Pregame Show at 8 p.m. MT.
Watch this morning’s BNN LIVE show from Canada here:
This breaking news story was sent first to paying subscribers of Bronco Nation News. Subscribe today for $1 for the first month using promo code FALLCAMP23 when signing up for a monthly subscription. For those that commit to a $70 yearly subscription, we’re giving away $20 gift cards to Taco Bell to the next 10 subscribers. Sign up here.
