Martin powers Boise State to OT win, keeps Broncos’ Mountain West title hopes alive

Ron Counts
·5 min read

Kansas transfer Cam Martin knocked down two free throws to give Boise State the lead with 1.7 seconds left in overtime, blocked the last shot of the game and disappeared into an elated mob of teammates as the final horn sounded on the Broncos’ regular season Friday at San Diego State.

Martin scored four of the Broncos’ seven points in overtime to lead Boise State to a 79-77 win, snapping the Aztecs’ 20-game home winning streak and keeping Boise State’s hopes of earning at least a share of the Mountain West’s regular season title alive.

If Utah State gets upset at home by New Mexico on Saturday night, the Broncos and Aggies will finish with identical 13-5 conference records and share the regular season title with the winner of Saturday night’s Nevada-UNLV game.

“We have such tough guys,” Boise State coach Leon Rice told KBOI radio after Friday’s game. “We didn’t get down and stack our bats when we went down 10. We just kept fighting.”

Martin’s seventh — yes, seventh — and final season of eligibility has been anything but smooth. He missed the second half of last season at Kansas because of a shoulder injury, which left him fighting rust early in the year. It also turned out that shoulder injury is still hampering him, leaving even the act of shooting difficult on a regular basis.

He looked pretty healthy on Friday, especially after O’Mar Stanley fouled out late in the game. Martin gave the Broncos 22 minutes and finished with 10 points and four key offensive rebounds, two of which he pulled down in the final two minutes of overtime. Martin scored 11 points in the Broncos’ previous four games combined.

“He went and got two of the biggest rebounds of our season,” Rice said. “That’s why he came here, to have a moment like this. He’s gone through a lot with his shoulder, and he’s been frustrated. What a great moment he gets to remember for the rest of his life.”

Boise State’s only other points in overtime came on a 3-pointer Max Rice hit from the San Diego State logo at midcourt. The sixth-year senior finished with 10 points.

Boise State (22-9, 13-5 MW) went into halftime with a 33-31 lead, but the Broncos found themselves trailing by 10 points with 14 minutes to play as San Diego State (22-9, 11-7) heated up. They battled back thanks in large part to 10 second-half points from Tyson Degenhart, and point guard Roddie Anderson III got a floater to drop to tie the game with seven seconds left in regulation and send it into overtime.

“You dream about these moments as a kid, playing in the front yard and counting down (the seconds) to yourself,” Anderson told KBOI radio on Friday. “By the grace of God, it went in. It’s an unreal feeling.”

Anderson, a transfer from UC San Diego, who had plenty of friends and family at Viejas Arena on Friday, finished with a season-high 16 points. Degenhart added 14 points and 11 rebounds.

The Mountain West’s leading scorer, San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee, finished with a game-high 21 points. Lamont Butler added 13 points, all of which he scored in the second half.

Big picture: The Broncos will enter the Mountain West Tournament as no worse than the No. 3 seed after Friday’s win. They’ll get a first-round bye and open the tournament on Thursday. The opponent could be the Aztecs again, New Mexico (22-8, 10-7) or Colorado State (21-9, 9-8). With any of those teams, it would be a third meeting of the season.

The top three seeds will be Utah State, BSU and either Nevada (25-6, 12-5) or UNLV (19-10, 12-5). The loser of Saturday night’s Wolf Pack-Rebels game in Reno will be the No. 4 seed. SDSU, the Lobos and the Rams will be seeds 5-7 depending on the outcome of Saturday contests.

The Mountain West Tournament begins Wednesday at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday, March 16.

If there were any doubts left about the Broncos’ NCAA Tournament resume, Friday’s win should have put those to bed. It was their second win of the season over San Diego State, which went into the game ranked No. 19 in the NET rankings. It was also Boise State’s sixth Quad 1 win of the season.

Boise State is 7-2 on the road this year in the Mountain West — a conference that could put six teams in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest projections.

The Broncos’ will find out if they made the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row during ESPN’s Selection Sunday special on March 17. Lunardi has Boise State, which has never won an NCAA tourney game, as a No. 9 seed in his latest projection.