Back in January Boise State trailed by nine points midway through the second half at San Jose State and was behind in the final minutes at Fresno State before using late comebacks to win both games on the road.
It was a different story the past 72 hours at ExtraMile Arena.
Boise State topped Fresno State by 24 points on Saturday and followed it up with an impressive 82-50 blowout win of San Jose State on Tuesday night to improve to 18-8 overall and remain in a first place tie in the loss column in the Mountain West at 9-4.
“If you saw us against these two teams a month ago it didn’t look like this,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “I think our team is getting better and when you are getting better in February, that’s a really good sign.”
Tyson Degenhart had 15 points and Chibuzo Agbo and and Max Rice had 14 each for the Broncos, who led 38-16 at the break and cruised to a even bigger margin in the second half.
Boise State shot 53.7 percent from the field on Tuesday – the second straight game in which the Broncos shot better than 50 percent from the field – and held the Spartans to just 32.7 percent shooting.
The Broncos had a 39-24 edge on the glass and also got 23 points from its bench – that’s 41 points from the bench in the last two games – to improve five spots to No. 45 at KenPom.com and seven spots to equal a season-high No. 35 in the NET ranking.
“Obviously it’s good for the metrics so that’s good,” Agbo said with a smile. “But you can’t take these games for granted. … Good teams can lose these games any night of the week in the Mountain West so we’re just glad to get it done.
“It just shows our focus. We know the things we want to achieve and to get these games over and done with by big margins is a big thing for us.”
Boise State is tied with Utah State with four losses atop the Mountain West standings. Any teams finishing in a tie would be considered co-champions, but the Aggies would have the better seed in the conference tournament since they swept the two regular season games against Boise State.
The Broncos have sneaky tough road games coming up at Wyoming and Air Force before playing New Mexico and Nevada at home. The Broncos finish the regular season at San Diego State.
While unlikely, Boise State would do no worse than finish in a tie for the league title with wins in each of the final five games.
“We’re locked in,” Agbo said. “We understand where we want to go. We have a really important stretch coming up right now. We still have a chance to win this thing and that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Boise State is projected to win its next four games ahead of the San Diego State finale, meaning at least a share of the regular season title is certainly a realistic goal.
Not a bad spot to be in with five games left.
“Absolutely that’s where you want to be,” Rice said. “We fought to be in this position. A lot of grinding and a lot of great wins.
“I’m really proud of the way the guys approached this tonight. It was a great week for us.”
The Broncos play at Wyoming on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on the Mountain West Network. Bronco Nation News will be live from Laramie with the Lithia Ford of Boise Pregame Show around 4:30 p.m. on YouTube, Facebook and X.
