Monday, March 4
Boise, Idaho
7:00 PM MT
Boise State
24-4
70
vs
66
New Mexico
23-5
1
2
3
4
F
New Mexico
14
11
18
23
66
Boise St.
18
10
24
18
70
Photo by: Boise State Photo Services
CHAMPIONS! Broncos Claim Regular-Season Title With 70-66 Win
3/4/2019 11:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BOISE, Idaho - The confetti fell from the Taco Bell Arena rafters and for the second-straight season, Boise State lifted the Mountain West regular-season trophy, this time winning it outright following a 70-66 victory over New Mexico Monday night.
The win also clinched the No. 1 seed at March 10-13's Mountain West Tournament for the Broncos, who will begin tournament play Monday, March 11, at 1 p.m. MT against the winner of Sunday's No. 8 vs. No. 9 contest.
"This is a tribute to our players and the grind. Anyone can get hot in the tournament, we've gotten hot three of the last four years and won the tournament," said Boise State head coach Gordy Presnell. "It's the day in and day out, all the practicing, all the plane trips and to grind it out and win the league. It's something that speaks well for them and just where our program can hopefully stay at. I'm just really proud of regular season championship, always been proud of that."
Seniors Marta Hermida and Joyce Harrell made sure to add another title to their illustrious Bronco careers in their final regular-season home game at Taco Bell Arena, as Hermida led the Broncos with 18 points to go with five rebounds, five assists, and two steals, and Harrell paced the team with eight rebounds along with five points.
"I got mad at her at the beginning of the game because she took a bunch of shots, but then she just settled in and it was just fantastic," Presnell said of Hermida's performance. "She was so engaged in the game and dialed in, got lost in the game. It's what we try to get these guys to do and I thought she was just fantastic."
Redshirt juniors A'Shanti Coleman (17 points, 8-for-11 shooting, four steals) and Jayde Christopher (seven points, five assists, five steals) also came up big in the win, with Christopher sealing the victory with a strip and steal of Aisia Robertson with five seconds remaining.
Boise State (24-4, 15-2 MW) turned up the pressure on defense for the second-straight game, forcing 26 New Mexico turnovers and making a season-best 15 steals, and scoring 27 points off of turnovers.
New Mexico (23-5, 13-4 MW) attempted a furious fourth-quarter comeback, closing a period-opening nine-point deficit down to three at 55-52 on Robertson's three-point play with 7:05 to play. But the Broncos had an answer every single time the Lobos looked poised to make a run. Hermida immediately answered Robertson's three-point play with a 3-pointer, getting the Bronco lead back to six.
The Lobos scored the next four points, with Jayla Everett's jumper cutting the Bronco lead to two at 58-56 with 4:47 to go, but Coleman powered her way into the paint for a layup, and a Riley Lupfer 3-pointer got the Broncos back to a seven-point cushion with 3:16 left.
Robertson, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including a 4-for-5 mark from behind the arc, hit two deep 3-pointers over the final 24 seconds to keep New Mexico within shouting distance, but Braydey Hodgins hit a pair of free throws down the stretch, and Christopher added one with nine seconds left before making the game-clinching steal on the ensuing New Mexico possession.
"Coming in this team was going to give it's all as most teams do. So it was going to be that back and forth action. We had to meet their intensity and energy because they weren't going to stop coming at us so we couldn't stop going at them," Coleman said.
The game featured a combined 44 turnovers as the teams committed to a track meet from the opening tip. The first half alone saw 30 turnovers between the two teams, 16 from the Lobos and 14 from the Broncos, as Boise State took a 28-25 lead into the break after shooting 36.1 percent against New Mexico's 34.5 percent. Hermida led the Broncos with eight points on 4-of-8 shooting in the first half, with Harrell grabbing seven of her rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Both teams appeared to settle in as the third quarter got underway, trading 3-pointers as Robertson's brought the Lobos even at 31-31 just a minute in. But a layup from Harrell and three-straight points from Coleman got the Broncos back out in front, 36-31, with 7:16 to go in the frame, delighting the raucous Bronco crowd of 2,682.
"I liked it a lot. The energy was crazy. The crowd, thank you so much for coming out, you brought it here," Harrell said of the crowd. "Playing off of everybody, I knew we had it. There wasn't one time where I felt like, oh dang this is slipping away from us so I knew the whole time we had it. Everybody stepped up, even if they didn't play."
The Broncos would shoot 47.6 percent in the frame, led by Coleman going 4-for-4 with nine points, and seven points from Hermida. Coleman hit a pair of jumpers to give the Broncos their largest lead of the game at 50-41 with 2:31 left in the quarter, and Hermida would answer a pair of free throws from Jaisa Nunn with a driving layup with 1:50 left to make it 52-43.
The win also clinched the No. 1 seed at March 10-13's Mountain West Tournament for the Broncos, who will begin tournament play Monday, March 11, at 1 p.m. MT against the winner of Sunday's No. 8 vs. No. 9 contest.
BACK-TO-BACK!!! 🏆🏆
— Boise State WBB (@BroncoSportsWBB) March 5, 2019
Boise State defeats New Mexico, 70-66, to win its second-straight @MountainWest title, and first outright in program history!!!#BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/AuY7Js6x2z
"This is a tribute to our players and the grind. Anyone can get hot in the tournament, we've gotten hot three of the last four years and won the tournament," said Boise State head coach Gordy Presnell. "It's the day in and day out, all the practicing, all the plane trips and to grind it out and win the league. It's something that speaks well for them and just where our program can hopefully stay at. I'm just really proud of regular season championship, always been proud of that."
Seniors Marta Hermida and Joyce Harrell made sure to add another title to their illustrious Bronco careers in their final regular-season home game at Taco Bell Arena, as Hermida led the Broncos with 18 points to go with five rebounds, five assists, and two steals, and Harrell paced the team with eight rebounds along with five points.
"I got mad at her at the beginning of the game because she took a bunch of shots, but then she just settled in and it was just fantastic," Presnell said of Hermida's performance. "She was so engaged in the game and dialed in, got lost in the game. It's what we try to get these guys to do and I thought she was just fantastic."
Redshirt juniors A'Shanti Coleman (17 points, 8-for-11 shooting, four steals) and Jayde Christopher (seven points, five assists, five steals) also came up big in the win, with Christopher sealing the victory with a strip and steal of Aisia Robertson with five seconds remaining.
Christopher gets the steal on the final possession, and Boise State is your 2018-19 Mountain West Regular Season Champions!! #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/dKlyj3c4kb
— Boise State WBB (@BroncoSportsWBB) March 5, 2019
Boise State (24-4, 15-2 MW) turned up the pressure on defense for the second-straight game, forcing 26 New Mexico turnovers and making a season-best 15 steals, and scoring 27 points off of turnovers.
New Mexico (23-5, 13-4 MW) attempted a furious fourth-quarter comeback, closing a period-opening nine-point deficit down to three at 55-52 on Robertson's three-point play with 7:05 to play. But the Broncos had an answer every single time the Lobos looked poised to make a run. Hermida immediately answered Robertson's three-point play with a 3-pointer, getting the Bronco lead back to six.
WATCH | New Mexico trims the deficit to 3, but Hermida answers with a trey from the corner! Broncos are up six with less than seven minutes to play.#BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/l7FMHSdzZ9
— Boise State WBB (@BroncoSportsWBB) March 5, 2019
The Lobos scored the next four points, with Jayla Everett's jumper cutting the Bronco lead to two at 58-56 with 4:47 to go, but Coleman powered her way into the paint for a layup, and a Riley Lupfer 3-pointer got the Broncos back to a seven-point cushion with 3:16 left.
Robertson, who finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including a 4-for-5 mark from behind the arc, hit two deep 3-pointers over the final 24 seconds to keep New Mexico within shouting distance, but Braydey Hodgins hit a pair of free throws down the stretch, and Christopher added one with nine seconds left before making the game-clinching steal on the ensuing New Mexico possession.
"Coming in this team was going to give it's all as most teams do. So it was going to be that back and forth action. We had to meet their intensity and energy because they weren't going to stop coming at us so we couldn't stop going at them," Coleman said.
The game featured a combined 44 turnovers as the teams committed to a track meet from the opening tip. The first half alone saw 30 turnovers between the two teams, 16 from the Lobos and 14 from the Broncos, as Boise State took a 28-25 lead into the break after shooting 36.1 percent against New Mexico's 34.5 percent. Hermida led the Broncos with eight points on 4-of-8 shooting in the first half, with Harrell grabbing seven of her rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Both teams appeared to settle in as the third quarter got underway, trading 3-pointers as Robertson's brought the Lobos even at 31-31 just a minute in. But a layup from Harrell and three-straight points from Coleman got the Broncos back out in front, 36-31, with 7:16 to go in the frame, delighting the raucous Bronco crowd of 2,682.
"I liked it a lot. The energy was crazy. The crowd, thank you so much for coming out, you brought it here," Harrell said of the crowd. "Playing off of everybody, I knew we had it. There wasn't one time where I felt like, oh dang this is slipping away from us so I knew the whole time we had it. Everybody stepped up, even if they didn't play."
The Broncos would shoot 47.6 percent in the frame, led by Coleman going 4-for-4 with nine points, and seven points from Hermida. Coleman hit a pair of jumpers to give the Broncos their largest lead of the game at 50-41 with 2:31 left in the quarter, and Hermida would answer a pair of free throws from Jaisa Nunn with a driving layup with 1:50 left to make it 52-43.
Team Stats
NM
BSU
FG%
.400
.378
3FG%
.391
.258
FT%
.900
.667
RB
42
41
TO
26
18
STL
7
15
Game Leaders
Pts
18
FGM
8
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
17
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
7
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
Guard
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Forward
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