BOISE – The Boise State women’s team didn’t win much of anything Wednesday night at Extra Mile Arena.
Not even the opening tip.
The Broncos saw their four-game winning streak come to an unceremonious end with a 84-63 loss to UNLV. It’s their worst defeat of the season and the 84 points are the most allowed in nearly two years. They’ve also now lost six straight times to the Rebel – all by double figures.
“We didn’t show up,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said. “They’re very good and we never adjusted to the speed nor the physicality of the game. They play a rough, great brand of basketball, and they just beat us.”
Boise (13-7 overall, 4-3 Mountain West) never led.
Its first field goal didn’t come until the 2-minute and 56-second mark of the opening quarter. The Broncos, who missed their first eight shots of the game, ended the first going just 1-of-13 from the field.
But thanks to UNLV’s own shooting woes (4-of-14) and six turnovers, including a pair of shot clock violations, they only found themselves down 11-5.
“Coming off a loss, and they don’t lose very often, I didn’t know if they would be dented or they would be mad,” Presnell said.
It turned out to be the latter for the Rebels, who fell out of the top-25 after a 69-66 loss at home to New Mexico on Saturday.
UNLV (16-2, 6-1) began the second with an 11-0 run by making its first five shots. It went 9-of-16 (56.3%) for the period overall. Boise State, meanwhile, continued to struggle.
It didn’t score until more than three minutes in. There was just 3:19 left in the half by the time the Broncos made back-to-back shots for the first time all game. It all resulted in them going into the locker room 6-of-28 (21.4%) from the field and a 34-19 deficit. It was the most they’ve trailed all year at the break and the 19 points were tied for the fewest scored in a half all season. They registered 19 points against Eastern Washington back on Dec. 3, 2023, as well.
“It can definitely be frustrating,” said sophomore guard Mya Hansen who finished with 12 points. “I felt like defensively we came out with a strong defensive presence, but it just didn’t translate to an offensive game. Basketball is a game of runs, and when it came down to it, they just got off to more runs than we did by the end of the game.”
Desi-Rae Young certainly contributed to that.
The reigning two-time Mountain West Player of the Year torched the Broncos in the post. She notched a double-double of a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. Young went 11-of-19 (57.9%) from the field, which even included a rare 3-pointer.
When Boise State went on a 13-2 run to cut a once 23-point fourth-quarter lead all the way down to 12 at 64-52 with 5:48 remaining, it was Young who squashed the momentum with an easy layup just seconds later.
“She’s a really great player,” said sophomore guard Natalie Pasco, who scored a team-high 21 points, shot 60% from 3-point range and had a season-high four assists. “She’s super physical on the boards. I think that’s where she really got us with those second-chance points.”
The Rebels had 19 second-chance points in total. They also owned the boards (42-28) and won the battle down low with 44 points in the paint to the Broncos’ 22.
“That was a really big difference,” Pasco said.
The Broncos were much better in the second half. They shot 53.1% from the field and only turned the ball over twice.
Unfortunately, UNLV showed why it’s the two-time defending Mountain West Tournament champions. It nearly equaled Boise State’s second-half shooting percentage (52.8%) and didn’t commit a single turnover after doing so nine times over the first 20 minutes. So the closest Boise State ever got for the rest of the game was still 12 points.
“We didn’t know that they were better than the team that they had last year, but they are,” Presnell said. “They can punch and counter punch. They punch with Desi and then if you make any kind of rotational mistake or anything like that, Frescas and some of those guys just drill it with a 3.”
The Rebels drained nine treys at a 50% clip no less.
Alyssa Durazo-Frescas was responsible for most of those with five for 16 points. Ashley Scoggin and Nneka Obiazor also reached double figures in scoring with 14 points apiece.
Sophomore Dani Bayes scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter for the Broncos, who’ll look to bounce back Saturday at San Diego State. Tipoff is 2 p.m. (MT).
“We will take those moments, break down that film, see what we can do to fix and then after that, just put it in the past and keep looking forward and prepare for the next game,” Hansen said.
