Presented by BBSI.
Monday, March 2, 2015.
It's funny, the two perspectives you can get on a sporting event depending on where you live. So it is with Boise State's landmark 56-46 win at San Diego State Saturday evening. "This team can swat and steal and stuff at will, but it can't figure out how to score," wrote Matt Calkins of the San Diego Union-Tribune in searching for answers to the Aztecs' lowest scoring output at Viejas Arena in 10 years. His conclusion: they're just not a very good offensive team. Later in the column, though, Calkins points out how in recent wins over Wyoming, Colorado State and New Mexico, San Diego State went 10-for-20 from three-point range in the first and shot better than 47 percent from the field in the next two.
So, could Boise State's defensive clamp-down in the final 11 minutes, when the Aztecs scored only seven points, have had anything to do with SDSU's offensive misery? At least around here, the fact that it did is appreciated. And that's why the Broncos have moved into a tie for first place in the Mountain West—and have completed the “quadfecta” of road breakthroughs. The first-ever win at Viejas Arena joins the ones earlier this season at Utah State, New Mexico and UNLV.
But how did the Broncos survive their disastrous offensive performance in the first half and, in fact, compensate for struggles all game long? By relentlessly crashing the boards. Boise State out-rebounded San Diego State 42-30, a stunning number when you go into somebody else's raucous house. In a game where every possession was precious, that was huge. James Webb III gutted out 12 boards, four of them on the offensive end, to post his seventh double-double of the season (he scored 16 points). The Aztecs had a decided advantage on the Broncos in height and athleticism, but not in "stick-to-itness."
Rob Heyer's numbers won't ever bowl anybody over, but has any team in the Mountain West received more of a spark off the bench this season than Boise State has from its "glue guy?" Heyer's the one who broke the Broncos' 0-for-6 spell from three-point land with his trey late in the first half. And it was Heyer's old-fashioned three-point play that snapped a 7½-minute spell without a field goal with 9:41 left in the contest, drawing SDSU scoring leader Aqeel Quinn's fourth foul. That's what launched the Broncos' 24-7 run to end the game. In a minute and a half, Heyer had three of his seven rebounds on the night, and he later added a key game-sealing steal with 1:02 remaining.
We didn’t get out of February before Boise State football landed its first commitment for the 2016 recruiting class. Isaiah Hayes, a defensive back from Calabasas, CA, came aboard Friday. He’s the son of former NFL safety Chris Hayes Sr. and the brother of Oregon State cornerback Chris Hayes Jr. There have been earlier commitments for Boise State—last year, for example, when Garrett Larson of Fruitland gave his verbal on February 5. The 2013 class featured the Broncos’ earliest commit ever, Fruitland’s Joe Martarano, who verbaled back on June 28, 2011. There’s something about those eager Grizzlies from the west end of the valley. Alec Dhaenens joined Martarano in that class on February 17, 2012.
Last October, the Fresno Bee’s Marek Warzawski marveled in his column at the 10-year transformation of Boise State’s football facilities when he was here for Fresno State’s game against the Broncos, and how it had left the Bulldogs in the dust. Since then, new Fresno State athletic director Jim Bartko has taken root, and Warzawski writes about a “fresh start” for the Bulldogs.
Bartko unveiled his blueprint for improvement at Fresno State late last week, including a three-phase upgrade of Bulldog Stadium, the return of wrestling, and the key to the deal: the athletic department reconnecting with major boosters who have fallen by the wayside. Warzawski summarized it this way: “Meet the new Bulldogs: more engaged and accessible; friendlier; more apt to smile and crack a joke; passionate to the core about college athletics; and totally committed to making Fresno State the best it can be.”
The Idaho Steelheads have now won six games in a row—all on the road—after completing a three-game sweep at Bakersfield over the weekend. With goaltender Jack Campbell called back up to Texas of the AHL, rookie Henri Kiviaho was back between the pipes for the Steelheads and got the Friday and Saturday victories. Kiviaho made 38 saves in Friday night’s 5-4 win, then Saturday he denied a Condors penalty shot in overtime and turned aside four of five shots in the shootout that ended with a 3-2 triumph. Colton Beck scored a goal in each of the three wins in Bakersfield. The Steelies, who now lead the ECHL Pacific Division by one point, begin a three-game series against Stockton Wednesday night in CenturyLink Arena.
The Idaho Stampede suffered another sweep over the weekend, this time at the hands of Rio Grande Valley in CenturyLink Arena. After being blown out 148-117 Friday night, the Stampede cobbled together a six-point lead early in the fourth quarter Saturday night only to see the Vipers roar back for a 130-119 victory. New Stampede guard Ian Clark was a bright spot. He had spent his NBA time mostly collecting pine for Utah, but Clark quickly got his feel for the game back when the Jazz assigned him to Idaho. Clark scored 18 points in his Stampede debut Friday and upped that to 20 Saturday night.
It’s on to the Cascade Conference championship game for the College of Idaho men after the Coyotes forced a whopping 16 second-half turnovers and rallied past Eastern Oregon 73-58 Saturday night. The sixth-ranked Yotes host Southern Oregon for the title tomorrow night in the J.A. Albertson Activities Center. Also, the Idaho men completed a home sweep of the Montana schools Saturday by dropping Montana State 80-73 Saturday in Memorial Gym. The win all but clinched a spot in the Big Sky Tournament for the Vandals and pulled them to within a game of .500 at 13-14. And the Boise State women are hanging in there in the race for a first-round bye in the Mountain West Tournament. The Broncos beat San Diego State 64-58 in Taco Bell Arena Saturday and are tied for fourth in the MW—the top five get byes in the tournament next week.
Other campus things: the Boise State women's gymnastics team recorded a solid win over BYU Friday night, scoring a 196.275 at Taco Bell Arena. The Bronco men's tennis team took two out of three during its home-opening weekend, downing Utah 5-2 and BYU 4-1 and falling to Penn 4-3. The Boise State men's track and field team finished last and the women were sixth at the Mountain West Indoor Championships in Albuquerque. And the Bronco wrestling squad finished fourth at the Pac-12 Championships in Corvallis, with true freshman Geo Martinez winning the Pac-12 individual title at 141 pounds. Martinez had gone into the meet ranked No. 6 nationally.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by COMMERCIAL TIRE…keeping you and your family on the road!
March 2, 2013: Boise State sells out Taco Bell Arena for its first “black-out,” and the Broncos respond in their black uniforms with a crucial 78-65 win over Colorado State, their 20th victory of the season. The game featured one of the great scoring performances in Boise State history, as sophomore guard Derrick Marks put up a staggering 33 points in the second half and 38 for the night. The win over the Rams, who were No. 17 in RPI ratings going into the game, boosted the Broncos’ hopes of a first-ever at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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