Playing with ‘joy,’ Boise State men’s basketball rolls to dominant win over New Orleans

Naje Smith fell to the ground as Tyson Degenhart stood over him and pretended to administer CPR in response to a Burke Smith dunk late in the second half.

Sometimes, college basketball can be really, really fun.

The Boise State men’s basketball team cleared its bench in a dominant 91-50 victory over New Orleans of the Southland Conference on Tuesday night at ExtraMile Arena as the Broncos pushed their winning streak to eight games.

It was a breakout night for many of the Broncos’ backups, as 12 players logged minutes and 11 scored two points or more. Boise State’s bench players contributed 43 points.

“You don’t want to lose that joy, because you’re trying to keep getting better,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “There’s a fine line. I want to keep pushing these guys, but we get better because we do play with joy and we enjoy practice, and we enjoy each other. I’ve got great guys, you’ve heard me say that over and over, high-character guys that love to play basketball, and I don’t ever want to take that out of them.”

Perhaps no Bronco was more joyous Tuesday night than redshirt freshman Kobe Young.

The 6-foot-6 guard from Pasco, Washington, had scored a combined three points all season but dropped a team-leading 16 points against the Privateers (2-7) on 5-for-8 shooting, highlighted by a 3-for-5 performance from 3-point range. He also added three rebounds in a career-high 18 minutes of action.

Young entered the game with 14:08 on the clock in the first half and 10 seconds later knocked down a triple for a 17-7 Boise State (9-2) lead.

“It felt good,” Young said. “I bought in to what Leon and all the guys were telling me at practice to just keep going and keep fighting out there. Then when I got my shot in the game, it really just helped me build the confidence to just keep going.”

For the second time in the last three games, true freshman Jace Whiting started in place of injured fifth-year senior Marcus Shaver Jr. Whiting totaled a career-best nine points to go with four assists and two rebounds. Fellow reserve Mohamed Sylla kept up his recent improvement, notching 10 points and five rebounds in just 10 minutes of action.

Starters Naje Smith (11 points, seven rebounds), Chibuzo Agbo (10 points, six rebounds) and Max Rice (12 points, eight rebounds) joined Young and Sylla in double figures, and the Broncos shot 54.5% from the field, their second-best percentage this season.

After taking a 42-28 lead into the break, the Broncos held the Privateers without a field goal for more than 10 minutes in the second half and limited them to 31.7% shooting, including just 27.3% from 3-point range.

“Great effort by our guys to set the tone in the second half,” Leon Rice said. “That enabled us to get everybody great minutes tonight and that’s valuable. I’ve said it over and over that the key to this team is the development of all of those guys, not just the six that come off the bench, but the development of the guys that start, too.”

During its win streak, Boise State has held its opponents to 55.6 points per game on 35.1% shooting from the field and 26.6% from deep. The Broncos have held seven opponents to under 60 points this season.

“Those guys went in and held the rope. They did their jobs,” Leon Rice said. “We had an 11-minute stretch to start that second half where (New Orleans) had two points. Our guys take so much pride in defense, the guys that came out of the game were telling the guys going in the game: ‘Keep that going. Let’s go. We’ve got a great half going.’ ”

The Broncos next host Oakland of the Horizon League on Sunday. Tipoff is 2 p.m. at ExtraMile Arena, and the game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network. A radio broadcast is available on KBOI 670 AM.

BOISE ST. 91, NEW ORLEANS 50

Jackson 2-6 1-3 5, Kirkland 2-10 0-0 4, Johnson 4-13 3-4 14, Sackey 0-3 2-2 2, Wilson-Rouse 5-10 0-0 10, Henry 2-7 0-0 4, Doughty 1-4 0-0 2, Cooper 3-5 3-3 9, Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Simes 0-2 0-0 0, Washington 0-0 0-0 0, Cajelli 0-0 0-0 0, Sinclair 0-0 0-0 0, Vincent 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-60 9-12 50.

Degenhart 3-8 0-0 6, N.Smith 3-6 4-4 11, Agbo 2-6 4-6 10, M.Rice 5-8 0-0 12, Whiting 3-6 1-2 9, Kuzmanovic 3-4 1-1 8, Young 5-8 3-4 16, Sylla 3-4 4-6 10, Milner 0-0 2-4 2, B.Smith 2-4 0-0 5, NgaNga 1-1 0-0 2, Winter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-55 19-27 91.

Halftime—Boise St. 42-28.3-Point Goals—New Orleans 3-11 (Johnson 3-6, Cooper 0-1, Sackey 0-1, Wilson-Rouse 0-1, Doughty 0-2), Boise St. 12-24 (Young 3-5, Whiting 2-3, M.Rice 2-4, Agbo 2-5, Kuzmanovic 1-2, B.Smith 1-2, N.Smith 1-2, Degenhart 0-1).Rebounds—New Orleans 21 (Johnson 7), Boise St. 44 (M.Rice 8).Assists—New Orleans 7 (Sackey 4), Boise St. 13 (Whiting 4).Total Fouls—New Orleans 17, Boise St. 14.A—7,254 (12,480).