With Boise State trailing North Texas by six and barely two minutes left on the clock Tuesday night at ExtraMile Arena, a frustrated, bewildered coach Leon Rice stared hopelessly into space.
He looked like he wanted to throw a chair, punch the nearby scorers table, yell a loud expletive – we’ve all been there.
Fans probably felt the same way. Sure North Texas is a quality team, but it’s a game the Broncos couldn’t afford to lose. It was a win they badly needed after a grueling early seasons schedule led to a 4-3 record coming in, and it didn’t look good.
But despite committing 20 turnovers and giving up 15 offensive rebounds to North Texas, the Broncos somehow caught fire and ended the game on an 11-0 run in the final 1:49 to pull off an impressive 69-64 win in front of 9,865 fans.
“That would have been a terrible one to lose and we just really didn’t want to lose that one,” said Chibuzo Agbo, who had 27 points and a huge 3-pointer in the final minute to help fuel the comeback. “There’s definitely going to be a lot of games like that where it comes down to the last four minutes, so I think that was good for us.
“We just weren’t playing well but we responded.”
Agbo was 7 of 11 from the field and made six 3-pointers for the Broncos, including two in which he also got fouled and made the free throw for 4-point plays.
Tyson Degenhart had 19 points for the Broncos, who fell behind 64-58 with 2:14 to play before scoring the final 11 points in somewhat surprising fashion to beat a North Texas team ranked nigher than them at KenPom.com.
It wasn’t pretty for much of the game. The Broncos had 20 turnovers, including six from point guard Roddie Anderson. They also lost the rebounding battle 34-25.
But when it mattered most, the Broncos figured out a way to get it done. Agbo’s 3-pointer pulled the Broncos within 64-64 with 56.2 seconds left. The defense then forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, and Degenhart got fouled and hit two free throws to put the Broncos up 65-54 with 42.7 seconds left.
Two more defensive stops, and four free throws from Max Rice and Omar Stanley had the crowd erupting in loud cheers as the final seconds ticked off. When it was all said and done the Broncos won the game by more than the KenPom projection despite playing poorly for much of the night.
“That was a really, really good team we played and we just found a way to finish,” Rice said. “What a game. Character shows up when adversity hits and adversity hit in a lot of ways tonight. There are a lot of teams that wouldn’t have found a way to win that game.
“I’ll never apologize for a win. It’s a lot more fun to learn from winning than to have to learn from losing. I’m just so proud of them for staying in the fight.”
Max Rice had seven points for the Broncos, while Cam Martin had five. But Agbo and Degenhart combined for 46 of the 69 points.
Boise State went 9 of 22 from 3-point range (41 percent) and made 20 of 26 free throw attempts. North Texas was just 4 of 17 from 3-point range.
Neither team led by more than eight points and Boise State’s five-point lead was its biggest of the game. The game had 15 different lead changes and nine ties, but the Broncos held the lead when it mattered most – when the clock hit zero.
After playing seven straight games against top 100 KenPom teams, believed to be the longest stretch for any team in the country so far this season, the Broncos improved to 5-3 and have three winnable home games coming up.
The Broncos have won two straight against top 80 KenPom teams in Saint Mary’s and North Texas – and should be on a five-game winning streak heading to face Washington State in Spokane in two weeks.
Plenty of improvement is needed, but the Broncos are confident they are about to get on a roll. And gutting out Tuesday’s win was a huge part of that.
“You look at the teams we’ve played this year and they are all super good defensively,” Max Rice said. “I think our opponents defensive efficiency is like top 10 in the country as well as our strength of schedule.
“We have a nice little one stretch here to rack up some wins. We’ll take our record any day of the week. We’re going to be just fine.”
