Late scoring drought dooms Boise State as Broncos’ NCAA Tournament heartbreak continues

The Boise State men’s basketball team is still looking for its first NCAA Tournament win.

The Broncos, who made the Big Dance for the third straight year, led Colorado with less than four minutes to play in a First Four game Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, but they let the game slip away late.

Boise State didn’t score a point for more than four minutes late in regulation, while Colorado regained the lead with 11 unanswered points and held on for a 60-53 win.

The Buffaloes (25-10) earned a No. 10 seed and the right to face No. 7 Florida in the first round Friday in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Broncos fell to 0-10 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

“These guys battled and battled even when shots weren’t dropping,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “We competed on the glass, and we guarded really well. They made a couple of crucial plays down the stretch that created just enough of a gap that they were able to finish.”

The shooting woes that ended Boise State’s run in the Mountain West Tournament last week stretched into the Big Dance. The Broncos shot just 34% (23-of-67) from the floor and went 2-for-18 from 3-point range on Wednesday. They shot a season-low 29% from the floor in a 76-66 loss to New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament.

Boise State (22-11) shot 29% from the floor and 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half Wednesday and went into halftime trailing, 26-24. It was the fewest points the Broncos scored in a half all season.

“We didn’t have the best shooting night, obviously,” Boise State junior Chibuzo Agbo said after the game. “Some shots should have definitely gone our way, but that happens sometimes.”

Foul trouble also mounted for the Broncos early. Leading scorer Tyson Degenhart picked up two fouls in the first 10 minutes of the game and was held scoreless in the first half. He finished with six points after averaging 18.2 points a game in Mountain West play this season.

Max Rice picked up his fourth foul midway through the second half, and O’Mar Stanley was playing with three for the final six minutes of the game. Rice, a sixth-year senior, who was playing the final game of his college career, was limited to two points and shot 1-for-9 from the floor.

“I know when I go back and re-watch that it will be very hard because I feel like we were right there with three minutes left,” Max Rice said after the game. “I thought down the stretch there were a couple of bang, bang plays where we’d miss a layup and they’d go down and hit a tough three. You just have to have those go your way in March.”

Despite struggling to score and mounting fouls, Boise State not only hung with Colorado in Dayton, the Broncos gave the Buffaloes everything they could handle, Colorado coach Tad Boyle said.

“Credit to them because that’s a tough team,” Boyle said. “They played hard, and we had to be at our best to make it out of here.”

As they have most of the season, the Broncos did their best work on the offensive glass. They pulled down 19 offensive rebounds compared to Colorado’s six, and Boise State finished the game with 19 second-chance points.

Stanley pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds, but he managed just four points. Point guard Roddie Anderson III finished with 14 points, but lost a costly turnover at a moment when the Broncos had a chance to pull within one possession of the lead in the final minute of regulation.

Agbo scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. He knocked down a 3-pointer to cut Colorado’s lead to four points early in the half. He hit a fade-away jumper to pull the Broncos within one, and another to give Boise State a 49-45 lead with 4:30 to play.

That lead stood until Colorado’s Tristan da Silva sparked the Buffaloes’ decisive 11-0 run with a 3-pointer. Point guard KJ Simpson gave the Buffaloes the lead for good with a pair of free throws with 3:42 left on the clock.

Da Silva led Colorado with 20 points. Simpson added 19 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

“This will be a tough one to get over, no doubt,” Leon Rice said. “It will take some time, but our mission is always the same. We’re going to come back better next year hungrier than we were. We’ve got a great nucleus coming back.”

Boise State heads into another offseason wondering what it’s going to take to win on college basketball’s biggest stage. The Broncos have plenty to be proud of, though, including six wins over Quad 1 teams and a 13-5 record in a conference that produced six NCAA Tournament teams.

“They accomplished so many great things,” Leon Rice said. “It’s hard to think about that now because these things end brutally, but they provide so much joy to this community in Boise, and they just play with passion and fire and (there are) a lot of great memories with this team.”

Boise State women fall to Grizzlies

The Boise State women’s basketball team’s season came to an end with a 92-66 loss to Montana in the first round of the WNIT Wednesday in Missoula, Montana.

The Broncos (21-14) got a combined 41 points from Natalie Pasco and Mya Hansen, but Montana (23-9) went 15-for-25 from 3-point range and pulled away after leading 46-39 at halftime.

Pasco scored a game-high 21 points. Hansen added 20 points, six rebounds and five assists. Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw led Montana with 20 points.