BOISE – It was Taylor Swift night for the Boise State women’s basketball team Saturday at Extra Mile Arena.
Which ended up being apropos.
The Broncos had to shake it off in a 68-59 Mountain West Conference win over San Diego State. It gets Boise State (11-6 overall, 2-2 MW) back to .500 within the league after staring the first 0-3 start in conference play in 20 years right in the face just 10 days ago.
“We’re back on track,” said senior forward and admitted Swiftie Abby Muse who finished with a game-high 16 rebounds. “We’re excited about that. It’s just week by week, game by game. So we just want to be a little better than the week before. And we accomplished that this week.”
The Broncos did so by holding on after a lackluster final three quarters. They went just 10-of-39 (25.6%) from the field during that stretch. It resulted in a once 24-point lead midway through the second quarter dwindling all the way down to six points at 64-58 with 57 seconds remaining.
But Boise State survived the late charge. It made eight straight free throws, six of those were from sophomore guard Mya Hansen, who scored all nine of her points at the charity stripe. It also forced a late turnover to squash any thoughts of a comeback by the Aztecs (11-7, 2-3).
“I’m proud of them,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said. “Mya is pretty exceptional in the closing seconds of games. She’s able to perform at a pretty high level.”
Hansen wasn’t alone.
There was a lot of that going around, especially in the first quarter when the Broncos led 27-9 after shooting 75% from the field, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. It was the most points they’ve put up in a quarter all year. Another program milestone was reached then as well.
Muse broke the school record for the most rebounds in a quarter with nine. The previous mark was held by Marijke Vanderschasf, who had seven against New Mexico on Feb. 15, 2017.
Muse already holds multiple records such as career blocks (231) and the most in a single season (93).
“I honestly didn’t know that I got that. So that’s pretty cool,” Muse said. “Whatever I can do to help the team win and to help us excel and succeed I will do it. I’m super happy with it. But that’s not the goal. I’m glad we won and that’s the goal.”
Mary Kay Naro also joined some elite company.
Her full-court lob in transition to sophomore guard Tatum Thompson at the 7-minute and 58-second mark of the second quarter made Naro just the fourth Boise State player ever to reach 400 career assists.
The Boise State senior point guard, who finished with eight points and five assists, now joins Yaiza Rodriguez (616), current graduate assistant Jayde Christopher (457) and Tricia Bader (451), who is the head coach at Montana State, as the only other players to achieve the feat.
“I look up to Jayde a lot. She was a tremendous player,” Naro said. “And to have your name even close to where hers is, is something that’s really cool. So I just hope to keep following in her footsteps a little bit.”
She did it in her first game back with the Broncos, too. Naro had missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury. She was in line to make her 100th consecutive start against Nevada on Jan. 3. But Naro sat out in the 58-57 loss before watching again from the bench in a 64-56 win at New Mexico. She had started every single game since first arriving on campus back in 2020.
“It was really hard,” Naro said about having to sit out. “Especially seeing your team struggle. It’s like, ‘Oh, I wish I can contribute and help them in the ways that I can.’ But they really stepped up in New Mexico and then I got to be back and bring more energy into this game.”
Natalie Pasco rounded out the personal accolades for Boise State by eclipsing 500 career points with a game-high 15 points. The sophomore guard did so by draining four 3-pointers on a 40% clip.
“Natalie’s a dead-eye,” Presnell said. “You have to guard her. She has a very quick release and she’s really quick to the shooting pocket. She’s a terrific player. She’s gonna get better and better. I know that.”
Senior forward Elodie Lalotte and sophomore guard Dani Bayes also reached double figures in scoring with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Lalotte flirted with a double-double by adding seven boards for the Broncos, who’ll now go back on the road against San Jose State (6-10, 1-3) at 8 p.m. (MT) Wednesday.
