ALBUQUERQUE – Boise State coach Leon Rice didn’t make it out of the locker room and back to the huddle to start the second half until there were only a few seconds left on the halftime clock Friday night at The Pit.
It looked for a minute like he might have decided not to watch the final 20 minutes. And who could have blamed him.
New Mexico jumped on the Broncos from the start and never looked back, finishing the half on a 23-2 run to lead by 27 points at the break en route to a dominant 84-65 win.
Boise State got outscored 22-0 in fast break points and 17-0 in points off turnovers – in the first half alone – as the Lobos fed off a loud and energetic crowd of 14,519 to force the Broncos into sloppy turnovers and missed shots in as one-sided of a half as you’ll see.
“There’s no way to sugar coat it,” Rice told Bronco Nation News on the Jacksons Postgame Show. “They kind of punked us in the first half.”
Boise State (13-6, 5-3 MW) actually outscored the Lobos by eight points in the second half to make the margin look a bit more respectable – but by that time it was way too late.
The damage was done in the first half. And Boise State wasn’t the one doing it.
New Mexico burst out to an early 8-0 lead and never looked back. The Lobos led 25-19 before jumping on the Broncos with pressure defense, quick transition buckets ands a level of toughness that the Broncos surprisingly couldn’t match.
The 27-point halftime lead was the largest ever for New Mexico in a Mountain West game.
“We’re a pretty physical team but it wasn’t even close in the first half how much more physical they were than us,” Rice said. “And in this building they are are pretty much allowed to do it. You have to be tough enough to be able to play through it.
“We’ve got tough guys. We’re a tough team. But they won the war of the trenches. They hit us before we could ever hit them.”
Tyson Degenhart had 14 points for the Broncos – but 11 of those came in the second half. He took just four shots in the first half and had three points.
Javan Buchanan also had 14 points for the Broncos, who got nine points from freshman Julian Bowie and eight points from Pearson Carmichael.
Donovan Dent and Nelly Junior Joseph each had 16 points for New Mexico, which improved to 7-1 in league play.
Boise State started the game 1 of 19 from 3-point range and finished 5 of 24 from deep. The Broncos also had 17 turnovers and let New Mexico shoot 54 percent from the field.
Boise State, which has lost tough road games at Utah State and New Mexico in the last week, has another road game up next on Wednesday at Colorado State.
“We just played in two of the hardest places to play in the country,” Rice said. “That’s life in the Mountain West and life on the road and we’ve got another short porch before another road game at a tough opponent. We’re good at regrouping but we have to get our legs underneath us and our minds right and go back out on the road and get one done.”
Tip off Wednesday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins is set for 6 p.m. Bronco Nation News will be LIVE courtside with the Lithia Ford Pregame Show starting at 5 p.m. on YouTube, Facebook and X.
POSTGAME SHOW