KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Tyson Degenhart was the story early. Kade Rice was the story late.
RJ Keene had something to say about it in the middle.
Degenhart had 29 points, Kade Rice came alive with several baskets in the bonus ‘fifth quarter’ game and the Broncos ended the 3-game Canadian trip with an impressive 83-60 win over Thompson Rivers on Thursday night at Champions Court in Kamloops.
But it was Keene who had the highlight of the night, throwing down an impressive one-handed put-back dunk off a missed shot by Degenhart just before the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half.
Keene, who redshirted two years ago and missed last year due to a shoulder injury, had nine points to cap off an impressive week in Canada.
“I thought RJ had really good energy tonight,” coach Leon Rice said on the BNN postgame show. “That was great.”
Degenhart was 4 of 7 from 3-point range and 8 of 14 shots overall, showing off a nice overall game with a mix of drives to the basket and outside shots.The 29 points were one higher than his official career high of 28 points set last season at New Mexico.
“You like to see that,” Rice said. “To get 29 points in 24 minutes – that’s pretty good.”
Thompson Rivers was by far the best of the three teams Boise State played in Canada and brought the biggest crowd. An announced crowd of 1,000 packed the arena and were heckling the Broncos early on. Boise State led just 9-8 and seemed a bit rattled before kicking things into gear with a huge run to open up a 35-14 advantage.
“That was a good atmosphere,” Rice said. “It felt like you were playing a little bit of a road game. That was neat. And those guys played really hard, they had a good defensive scheme and they ran their stuff well.”
Boise State, coming off a long travel day and a 4-hour rafting trip on Wednesday, overcame the sluggish start to pull away for an impressive win. Thompson Rivers outscored the Broncos 17-15 in the second quarter to pull within seven, but Boise State ended the half on a 9-1 run – thanks in part to the Keene dunk – to lead 44-29 at the break. The Broncos pushed the lead to as many as 26 and cruised down the stretch.
“We spent about 10 hours in the sun yesterday so I knew there would be some challenges with our mentality, since we won the first two games pretty handedly,” Rice said. “But I was pretty happy with what we got done. It was a more realistic game and we worked through some things. It was great.”
St. John’s transfer O’Mar Stanley capped off a nice week with 16 points and 8 rebounds on Thursday, while Chibuzo Agbo added eight points.
But the most fun might have come in the fourth and fifth quarters, when the freshman Kade Rice got hot. Rice had six points in the official game, but added at least three more buckets in the bonus fifth quarter while his dad was commentating on the BNN live stream.
“He makes winning plays and that’s what these guys respect about him,” coach Leon Rice said.
Boise State won by scores of 134-70, 93-57 and 83-60 in Canada, averaging 103.3 points per game and an average margin of victory of 41 points.
Three transfers and two freshmen got their feet wet, while others such as Keene were able to get valuable minutes. It wasn’t perfect by any means – which excites Rice and the coaching staff with two months now before official practices for the season start around Oct. 1.
“We don’t even play a scrimmage until October now so we got a lot of good stuff on tape we can show the guys,” Rice said. “Positioning wise, defensively, execution wise – you can use this for two months as a teaching tool.”
The Broncos capped off the trip with a 25-16 win in the bonus fifth quarter game after losing the fifth quarter in each of the two previous games. The Broncos played their three walk-ons the full 10 minutes in all three games.
Overall the Broncos leave Canada on Friday with three wins, plenty of team bonding and memories off the court and solid momentum heading into what appears could be a fun season. Thursday was a nice way to cap it off.
“This was a perfect end to a great trip,” Rice said.
