ORLANDO – A 10-day, cross-country road trip appeared to finally catch up with the Boise State men’s basketball team Sunday in the finale.
Shots weren’t falling. Energy lacked. Defense was subpar.
The final score showed it.
Boise State suffered a 70-56 loss to Butler in the finale game of the ESPN Events Invitational, ending a four-game East Coast trip with a disappointing 1-3 record.
“It seemed like the starters didn’t have as much juice as some of the guys I brought off the bench,” Boise State coach Leon Rice told Bronco Nation News. “And you’ve got to play at your highest level in these games in these tournaments.”
The Broncos lost at Clemson last Sunday and lost to Virginia Tech and Butler in Orlando. The lone win came against VCU on Friday. All four games were against top-100 competition, but a win Sunday would have gone a long way to help salvage the trip.
Instead Boise State now must travel across the country Monday – on commercial flights with layovers – before a quick turnaround against a good Saint Mary’s team on Friday in Idaho Falls.
Boise State made just 5 of 30 shots from 3-point range (16.7 percent) and made just 21 of 65 shots overall (32.3 percent). Starters Chibuzo Agbo (six points) and Max Rice (four points) combined for just 10 points on 4 of 18 shooting.
Tyson Degenhart, who finished with 12 points, was the only Bronco to reach double figures.
Playing for the fourth time in eight games – and more than 2,600 miles away from home – the Broncos looked sluggish from the start and never really recovered. They led 23-18 with 6:03 to play in the half but got outscored 17-4 to fall behind 35-27 at the half.
After briefly pulling within 38-35 early in the second half, the Broncos didn’t score for nearly six minutes as Butler used a 14-0 run to take control at 52-35.
“We never make excuses but that being said, would I do an 11-day road trip again? I probably wouldn’t want to, but you get an opportunity to get a home and home with Clemson, you can’t say no,” Rice said. “We didn’t want to fly down and back two times, its’ a long ways away and a long time to be away from home, but you have to give Butler credit. They played like a Big East team. They were physical and that bothered us. We weren’t physically and mentally tough enough to deal with it.”
Jace Whiting had nine points while making his third straight start for the Broncos, who only lost the rebounding battle by one and committed just eight turnovers – two areas which have plagued them at times through the first six games.
“Obviously not what we wanted – far from it,” Whiting said. “I don’t think it was a bad trip by any means though. I feel like from the first game to this game we got better at a lot of stuff. We just needed to come out faster and harder. They out-toughed us and that’s something we have to work on because we’re definitely a tough team
“We have to bring it right from the get-go because sometimes we start too slow and get a deficit and then we have to fight our way back.”
Asked about playing four games in eight days and whether tired legs was a factor Sunday, Whiting said, “yeah, you could see it out there. We started really slow and guys looked tired. We were having to sub really fast.”
Rice and Agbo combined to go 0 for 8 from 3-point range Sunday against Butler. Degenhart was 2 of 6, making the Broncos’ three best players a combined 2 of 14 from deep.
As a team the Broncos are shooting just 26.3 percent from beyond the arc for the season.
“It’s a game of made shots,” Rice said. “We need our guys to make those. Your big three, who you know can amen them and the data is in there and there’ve proven it before, they have to get it done.
“To win basketball games you have to make some shots. It’s pretty hard to win basketball games if you’re putting too much pressure on your defense. We rebounded pretty decently and we went to the offensive glass, we just missed too many shots.”
At 3-3 the Broncos don’t have the record they or fans had hoped for. But they’ve also played one of the toughest schedules in the nation. The Broncos are in the midst of playing seven straight top-100 KenPom teams – the longest of any Mountain West team by far and among the most of anybody in the country.
The next two opponents, Saint Mary’s and North Texas, are both in the top 75 and a good Washington State team is upcoming in a few weeks.
The schedule won’t get any easier, but the Broncos are confident the wins will soon come.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk with the nonconference schedule,” Whiting said. “But honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way. We don’t want to play cupcake teams. That doesn’t make us any better. At least we’re playing tough teams and getting better from it.
“I think we’ll see it (pay off) come conference play. We’re not the type of team to just roll over. There’s a lot of season left. We’re far from finished.”
Tickets remain for Friday’s game against Saint Mary’s at Hero Court at the Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls. Tip off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MT and the game will air nationally on FS1.
