BOISE – Boise State women’s coach Gordy Presnell didn’t mince words following a 69-62 loss to Wyoming on Saturday afternoon at ExtraMile Arena.
This one was on him.
Presnell criticized himself for pulling a group of reserves that helped the Broncos come back to grab a 3-point lead heading into the fourth quarter and putting three starters back in the game to start the fourth quarter.
Boise State got outscored 19-9 in the final 10 minutes, including 14-3 to end the game after leading 59-55 early in the fourth, to come up short from what would have been one of the Broncos’ best wins of the season.
“World record (bad) substituting on my part,” Presnell said. “We have our four freshmen out there and we go all the way back and we’re up four and I go back to the (starters) to start the quarter and we didn’t do very well.
“That’s on me. Obviously everyone who watched the game can see who is playing well and who isn’t, and you go back to what your safety (net) is and what you’ve been around but what a horrible substitution on my part.”
Boise State outscored Wyoming 20-12 in the third quarter to grab a 53-50 lead heading to the fourth. Presnell put starters Mya Hansen, Elodie Lalotte and Abby Muse back into the game in place of Tatum Thompson, Trista Hull and Natalie Pasco – who fueled the impressive third quarter.
Wyoming immediately tied the game on a 3-pointer barely 20 seconds into the quarter, grabbed the lead at 60-59 with 5:52 left and never looked back.
Boise State missed its last 10 shots of the game and went just 2 of 14 from the field in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know why I did that – I don’t know why I did that,” Presnell said. “There’s always feel. In the first half you usually have a rotation but in the second half you kind of go by feel and why I would do that is is beside myself. But I did, and we went back to that group and got behind and went back with the second teamers and tried and it didn’t work out.
“That was a winnable game and I feel like I let our group down a little bit.”
Muse and Thompson each had 12 points for the Broncos, while Pasco had 10 and Hansen had nine.
Boise State (9-13, 4-5 MW) finishes up a three-game homestead on Monday night against San Diego State. Tip off at ExtraMile Arena is set for 6:30 p.m.
