LOGAN – The good news? Boise State’s schedule gets significantly lighter moving forward.
The bad? The Broncos have left themselves little margin for error down the stretch.
Boise State, which is in the mix for the Mountain West regular season title and a third-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, struggled to shoot from the outside and couldn’t slow down Utah State in a 80-61 loss inside a sold out and electric Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday night.
It’s the second straight loss for the Broncos, who fell 75-62 at Colorado State on Tuesday.
“We came in confident and we thought we had a good game plan but ultimately we just didn’t execute it,” forward Tyson Degenhart told Bronco Nation News. “It was definitely a tough week. You never want to go 0-2 in a week no matter who you are playing, but definitely the bye comes at the right time to get a little reset and come back fresh.
“We’re still in a great spot in the conference, tied for second, and we have a great schedule ahead of us and we’re going to come back ready to go.”
Degenhart had 17 points and Max Rice had 12 for the Broncos, who trailed 41-30 at the break and never got closer than 10 points in the second half.
Boise State looked like a team playing its 11th straight game with three days of rest of less. The Broncos, who also played a 7th Quad 1 game in the past 10, finally get a break in the schedule this week after a grueling and taxing last month.
“I think we’re a little worn out,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said on the Bronco Nation News Postgame Show. “It’s been a long month and a half. We’ve had game after game after game and this bye is coming at a great time for us.”
The Broncos, who don’t play until Saturday at home against Fresno State, will take three days off before returning to the practice court on Wednesday.
“We need to regroup,” Rice said. “We’ll get our minds right and our bodies right. You don’t have a lot of time to get stuff done when it’s game after game after game. We’ll get our bodies right, our minds right and we’re a little banged up so we’ll come out of these couple days feeling better. This team always responds and we’ll be back. This bye is coming at a great time.”
Boise State (16-8, 7-4 MW) has lost three of its past five games overall including twice to Utah State. The Aggies are the only team to sweep the Broncos this season and now hold the key head-to-head tiebreaker should the two teams finished in the standings at the end of the season.
Facing a sellout crowd and the loudest road atmosphere this season, the Broncos hung around early but couldn’t make enough shots to be competitive in the second half. Boise State shot just 35.6 percent from the field, including just 7 of 29 (24.1 percent) from 3-point range.
“We have to get our offense clicking,” Rice said. “We had it clicking a week ago and it can change quick, but you also played two really good teams on the road and both were really physical games.
“To be fair our guys looked a little worn out. But they battled. The best thing we have in that locker room is high character guys and they’ll be ready. This break helps us. We’ll reset and get back to playing our best basketball.”
Boise State’s schedule gets much more manageable moving forward. After the bye the Broncos have four games against teams ranked outside the top 175 at KenPom including Fresno State and San Jose State at home and Wyoming and Air Force on the road.
The Broncos then have two teams at home they already beat on the road in New Mexico and Nevada before finishing the regular season at San Diego State.
Most other Mountain West contenders have much harder schedules down the stretch. Heck 10 days from now after the Broncos play Fresno State and San Jose State at home, they’ll probably already be back in first place.
While the schedule gets easier for the Broncos, they’ll hope to take care of business while the other teams beat each other up. A late-season surge towards the top of the standings could be coming.
“You can’t overreact because of how many losses everybody is going to get,” Rice said. “This was a top 20 team right now and they played like it tonight, I know that. It’s just a matter of regrouping. You’ve seen it all over the league, a team will lose a couple and then bounce back.
“We have a month left after this bye to play our best basketball and if we do that, we’re a good enough team to be right there in the hunt.”
