Thursday, November 8
Boise, Idaho
5:00 PM MT

Boise State

vs

CSUN

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Boise State Opens Campaign Thursday Against CSUN

11/7/2018 12:13:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Game Notes

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics



2018-19 Opener
Boise State (0-0) vs. CSUN (0-1)
Thursday, Nov. 8
5 p.m. (MT)
Boise, Idaho • Taco Bell Arena
Series: Boise State leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: Boise State 77, CSUN 38 (Dec. 16, 1989) • Boise, Idaho
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BOISE, Idaho - Boise State opens its 2018-19 campaign Thursday, hosting defending Big West champion and 2018 NCAA Tournament participant CSUN (0-1) for a 5 p.m. tip.

The Broncos will continue their four-game season-opening homestand Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against Southern Oregon.
 

2017-18 RECAP: Boise State is coming off of a 2017-18 campaign in which it went 23-10 (14-4 MW), captured the Mountain West double (regular season and tournament titles), and made the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, returns four starters and nine letterwinners in 2018-19.

The Broncos' 14-4 conference record was its best since joining the Mountain West in 2011-12, and the team swept through Air Force, Colorado State, and Nevada in the Mountain West Tournament in March.

Boise State was tacked with a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and traveled to Louisville, where they fell, 74-42, to the top-seeded Cardinals.

LAST TIME OUT: Boise State tuned up for Thursday's opener with a 99-68 victory over Concordia (Ore.) Nov. 2 at Taco Bell Arena.

The Broncos jumped out to a 25-7 lead after a quarter, and cruised to the win as six players scored in double figures. Riley Lupfer went 4-for-6 from behind the arc and 5-for-9 overall to finish with 14 points in 20 minutes of action, while forwards Joyce Harrell (6-for-6 from the field) and A'Shanti Coleman (6-for-8) combined to go 12-for-14 for 27 points. Harrell finished the night with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Jayde Christopher passes out nine assists in her first action in a Bronco uniform, while fellow guard Braydey Hodgins had six assists and went 7-for-8 from the line in a 10-point outing.

Freshmen Jade Loville (13 points, 3-for-5 on 3-pointers) and Rachel Bowers (17 points, 8-for-11 shooting, seven rebounds) also made impressive first showings.
 

WHO'S NEXT: CSUN (0-1) will be playing its second game of the 2018-19 season when it comes to Taco Bell Arena Thursday. The Matadors dropped their opener, 88-73, to Idaho Tuesday night in San Francisco.

Last season, the Matadors went 19-16 (8-8 Big West) and captured the Big West tournament title. CSUN was given a 16 seed and traveled to Notre Dame, where they fell, 99-81, to the eventual national champion Fighting Irish.

The Matadors are led this season by two-time reigning Big West Player of the Year Channon Fluker, a senior center who averaged 18.9 points and 12.1 rebounds per game last year while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor. Fluker was named to the Preseason All-Big West Team along with sixth-year guard Serafina Maulupe, who averaged 11.7 points and 5.0 rebounds over 10 games last year before suffering a season-ending injury.

BRONCOS TABBED TO WIN MOUNTAIN WEST FOR SECOND-STRAIGHT SEASON: Boise State was tabbed to win the Mountain West regular-season title for the second-straight season with the release of the preseason poll Nov. 1. The Broncos earned 19 of 23 first-place votes from the conference head coaches and media members to finish ahead of UNLV (four first-place votes) and Fresno State in the top three.

The announcement underscores Boise State's rise to the top of the Mountain West since joining the conference in 2011-12. The Broncos have been voted to finish in the Mountain West top three in each of the past five seasons (second in 2014-15, third in 2015-16, second in 2016-17, first in 2017-18 and 2018-19).
 

LUPFER LOOKING FOR BIG 2018-19: Junior guard Riley Lupfer was voted Preseason Mountain West Player of the Year on Nov. 1, becoming the first Bronco to earn the conference's top preseason honor.

It follows a breakout 2017-18 campaign in which Lupfer led the Broncos with 16.2 points per game and set the Boise State and Mountain West single-season records with 122 3-pointers made. The Spokane, Wash., native was thrice named Mountain West Player of the Week last season, and recorded four games with at least seven 3-pointers made. She went on to be voted the Most Outstanding Player of the Mountain West Tournament after averaging 16.7 points and shooting 44.4 percent (12-for-27) from 3-point range over Boise State's 3-0 run.

LOVILLE GRABS PRESEASON FRESHMAN HONOR: The Broncos had another first with the preseason conference honors on Nov. 1, as freshman guard Jade Loville was voted the Preseason Mountain West Freshman of the Year.

Loville will make her Boise State debut this season after a decorated prep career at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Wash. Loville was named to the All-USA TODAY Washington Girls Second Team and Associated Press All-State (Wash.) 4A Honorable Mention following a 2017-18 senior campaign in which she averaged 37.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game and shot 45 percent from the field. She also earned a spot on the All-KingCo 4A First Team, and for her career was a four-time All-KingCo 4A selection, being twice named to the Second Team (as a freshman and sophomore), before earning her first-team selections following her junior and senior seasons.

Last Friday against Concordia, Loville scored 13 points and went 3-for-5 from deep in 15:33 of action. She also grabbed four rebounds and passed out four assists.
 

HERMIDA NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-MW TEAM: Also earning recognition with the preseason conference announcements was senior guard Marta Hermida, who joined Riley Lupfer on the Preseason All-Mountain West Team. The inclusion of Lupfer and Hermida on the five-player team marked the first time since joining the Mountain West (2011-12) that the Broncos had multiple players on the squad. It also made for five-straight seasons in which the Broncos have landed at least one player to the squad, making Boise State the only program to achieve the feat over that span.

Hermida began her junior year (2017-18) off of a gold-medal performance with Spain's U20 National Team at the 2017 FIBA U20 European Women's Championship, and went on to average 10.8 points (second on the team) and a team-leading 4.70 assists per game for Boise State. The Madrid native posted the second triple-double in Boise State women's basketball history with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists against Corban on Nov. 26, 2017, and was a key contributor to the Broncos' successful Mountain West Tournament run, averaging 12.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.33 assists while shooting 43.6 percent from the floor over the three wins.

HODGINS, COLEMAN BACK: Also returning from last year's starting lineup are junior guard Braydey Hodgins (8.2 ppg, 3.28 apg in 2017-18), a Mountain West All-Tournament Team pick, and forward A'Shanti Coleman (7.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, team-leading 50.3 field-goal percentage and team-leading 35 blocks), who converted the buzzer-beating, Mountain West Tournament-winning put back in the final against Nevada.

Hodgins, caught fire in late February of last season, leading the Broncos with 16.4 points per game, while also averaging 5.8 rebounds and 3.83 assists per game over a six-game stretch from Feb. 21 against Colorado State through the end of the Mountain West Tournament.

Coleman was been one of Boise State's top producers off the bench to start 2017-18, and on Feb. 7, against New Mexico, she entered the starting lineup for the first time. Over the seven games in which Coleman started, she averaged UPDATE 8.7 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 48.7 percent from the field.

GOING FOR A REPEAT AND A THREE-PEAT: Entering this season, Boise State will be going for a repeat of its 2017-18 Mountain West regular-season title, and a three-peat at the conference tournament in March.

Should the Broncos capture the Mountain West Tournament crown, they would become just the second program to pull off the three-peat, matching New Mexico's run from 2002-04.

A repeat of the regular-season title would mark the second time in school history that Boise State has won back-to-back crowns, matching the 2007-08 and 2008-09 WAC regular-season titles.

CHRISTOPHER, GALERON DEBUT: This season will also mark the highly-anticipated debuts of two players who sat out 2017-18: point guard Jayde Christopher and Spanish international forward Sofia Galeron.

Christopher, who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, appeared in 61 games, making 21 starts, for Kansas from 2015-17, averaging 2.6 points and 2.2 assists a game.

Galeron her summer of 2017 competing internationally, playing at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in China, and has also represented Spain at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship and the 2015 FIBA U16 European Championship.
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Players Mentioned

25

Rachel Bowers

Forward
/ Women's Basketball
23

Jayde Christopher

Guard
/ Women's Basketball
42

A'Shanti Coleman

Forward
/ Women's Basketball
3

Sofia Galeron

Forward
/ Women's Basketball
33

Joyce Harrell

Forward
/ Women's Basketball
20

Marta Hermida

Guard
/ Women's Basketball
14

Braydey Hodgins

Guard
/ Women's Basketball
30

Jade Loville

Guard
/ Women's Basketball
21

Riley Lupfer

Guard
/ Women's Basketball

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