What Happened?
Boise State beat St. Mary’s 68-67. Drew Fielder led all scorers with 22 points while shooting 68% from the field. Paulius Murauskas led St Mary’s with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Only one other Bronco crossed the double-digit scoring mark, which was Javan Buchanan, who had 11. It was a low-scoring, gritty affair that saw the Broncos squeak out a 3rd consecutive win against St Mary’s in Idaho Falls. This is the 2nd Q1 win in 3 games for the Broncos, which has brought our at-large bid back from the dead.
Game Of Runs
In college basketball games aren’t determined by indivual moments but by runs. A key defensive stretch here or a hot shooting run there ends up determining wins and losses. Tonight, the Broncos had scoring runs of 13-0 and 11-0. They also gave up scoring runs of 12-0 and 10-0 to end the game. This team, when everything is clicking, looks unstoppable but they go through times where the offense just stalls out.
Thanks to the rough losses in Maui, I believe this Bronco team is better prepared to survive those scoring droughts. Tonight was an excellent example of that. The Broncos led by 14 with 4 minutes left in the ball game. To St. Mary’s credit, they didn’t give u,p and they gave the Broncos everything they could handle and more, but the Broncos never folded defensively. It seems like every game the Broncos have held their opponent under their season average by 10-15 points. That defense is what is required to survive the gauntlet that is Mountain West conference play. So pack your heart pills and your energy drinks because the next 20 conference games are going to be a roller coaster.
What’s Next?
The easy part of our schedule is over. We now enter the gauntlet of Mountain West play. Thanks to the “addition” of Grand Canyon conference play starts earlier this season. The road to Vegas and an automatic birth to the NCAA tournment starts at Reno on Saturday, the 20th at 8pm. Plan on a lot of late nights cheering on this Bronco team because we have some late nights on the schedule.
