Boise State basketball gets ‘bullied’ on the boards in overtime loss at San Jose State

The Boise State men’s basketball team has certainly been outrebounded this season. But never quite like this.

San Jose State enjoyed a plus-21 advantage on the boards to outlast the Broncos in a 74-68 overtime victory Saturday at Provident Credit Union Event Center in San Jose, California.

“We knew what we had to do, and we kind of just got bullied down there,” Boise State coach Leon Rice told KBOI 670 AM in a postgame radio interview. “You give up 21 offensive rebounds, you get a couple more and you win the game. They won it on the offensive boards. ... They kind of wore our bodies out.”

San Jose State outrebounded the Broncos 53-32, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds that led to 15 second-chance points.

The Spartans’ Robert Vaihola was fouled on an offensive rebound with 6 seconds left in regulation and San Jose State in the bonus. Vaihola, who grabbed seven of his 11 rebounds on the offensive end, made 1-of-2 free throws to send the game into overtime.

Boise State fifth-year senior Max Rice, who was coming off a 30-point outing vs. New Mexico, got a look at the potential game-winning 3-pointer as time ran out, but his shot was blocked.

“They’re not really coming out ever. They’re staying right down in there. They’re hunkered down,” Boise State junior Chibuzo Agbo said. “So as soon as a shot’s going up, you can’t really push them, because a ref’s going to call a foul, so it’s tough. But we shouldn’t have allowed that to happen.”

After leading by as many as 12 points — 54-42 with 8:17 to play — Boise State (22-7, 12-4 MW) went the final 6:40 of regulation without a field goal and then missed its first five shots in overtime.

The Spartans shot 60% from the floor and made 9-of-13 free-throw attempts in overtime to end an 11-game losing streak to the Broncos dating back to 2016.

“You can’t get a stop if you can’t get a rebound,” Leon Rice said. “We had some good defensive possessions that just ended in them shoving us under and going and getting the ball. We weren’t physical enough.”

San Jose State senior guard Omari Moore, the fourth-leading scorer in the Mountain West, led all scorers with 24 points on 10-for-26 shooting to go with four assists, two rebounds, two blocked shots and one steal. Moore scored 15 of his 24 points in the second half, including a posterizing dunk with 7:02 to play that was part of a 16-4 San Jose State run to end regulation.

“Every game we have keys to the game written down, usually three of them for the game,” Agbo said. “Rebounding was the top one. Defensive rebounding, we just didn’t do that today.”

Boise State next hosts Mountain West leader San Diego State on Tuesday. Tipoff is 7 p.m. at ExtraMile Arena, and the game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network, or listen on the radio on KBOI 670 AM. The Aztecs defeated the Broncos 72-52 on Feb. 3 without the services of Marcus Shaver Jr.

San Diego State (23-5, 14-2) has a two-game lead in the Mountain West on Boise State and Nevada (22-7, 12-4) with just two games left in the regular season.

SAN JOSE ST. 74, BOISE ST. 68 (OT)

BSU: Degenhart 5-7 0-1 13, N.Smith 3-5 1-4 8, Agbo 5-8 3-3 17, M.Rice 4-18 2-2 12, Shaver 3-9 8-9 14, Milner 1-2 0-1 2, Whiting 1-2 0-0 2, Young 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-53 14-20 68.

SJSU: T.Anderson 0-3 0-0 0, Tolbert 3-9 0-0 6, Diallo 4-7 0-0 8, Cardenas 1-3 5-6 8, Moore 10-26 0-1 24, Vaihola 5-7 5-8 15, G.Anderson 3-10 4-4 13, Gorener 0-7 0-0 0. Totals 26-72 14-19 74.

Halftime—Boise St. 31-25. 3-Point Goals—Boise St. 10-23 (Agbo 4-5, Degenhart 3-5, M.Rice 2-7, N.Smith 1-2, Whiting 0-1, Young 0-1, Shaver 0-2), San Jose St. 8-31 (Moore 4-10, G.Anderson 3-9, Cardenas 1-2, T.Anderson 0-2, Tolbert 0-3, Gorener 0-5). Fouled Out—Agbo, Vaihola. Rebounds—Boise St. 29 (N.Smith 11), San Jose St. 46 (Diallo 15). Assists—Boise St. 14 (M.Rice 5), San Jose St. 11 (Cardenas, Moore 4). Total Fouls—Boise St. 19, San Jose St. 18. A—2,321 (5,000).