Broncos Rally to Beat New Mexico

Wednesday, February 22

Boise, Idaho

8:30 p.m. MT

Boise State

22-6,12-3Mountain West

New Mexico

20-8,7-8Mountain West

New Mexico

Boise St.

2/23/2023 1:32:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Gamebook

Rice scores career-high 30 points

BOISE, Idaho – A furious second-half comeback propelled Boise State past a 13-point deficit to New Mexico in front of 9,825 fans at ExtraMile Arena, 82-77, Wednesday night.

The Broncos (22-6, 12-3 MW) were lights out in the second half, dominating the glass and improving their shooting percentage from 35.3% (12-of-34) to 45.2% (14-of-31) from the first half to the second half. The Lobos (20-8, 7-8 MW) led for 20:28 in the game, but a Max Rice jumper with 7:28 remaining gave Boise State the 62-61 lead as the Broncos led the rest of the way.

Rice scored 30 points, 22 in the second half, for the first 30-piece of his career.

The Lobos jumped to a 37-24 lead with three minutes left in the first half on a second chance layup for their largest lead of the night. Boise State went on a 7-0 run to end the half and held New Mexico to go 0-for-2 from the field with two turnovers over those final three minutes to make it a six-point game.

TOP BRONCOS

Max Rice scored 30 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field to go along with seven rebounds and two assists.
Tyson Degenhart scored 13 points with seven rebounds, his 14th 10-5 game this season.
Chibuzo Agbo had 12 points with seven rebounds.

NOTABLES

Max Rice's 30 points is the first 30-point game by a Bronco since Abu Kigab vs. Prairie View A&M (Dec. 10, 2021).
The Broncos have won 13 games in a row at ExtraMile Arena, the longest home winning streak since they won 18 in a row (Feb. 23, 2020 to Feb. 19, 2021).
Boise State had three players with seven rebounds for the second time this season (Wyoming; Jan. 14, 2023).
The Broncos scored 32 points in the paint.
Boise State out-rebounded New Mexico 23-18 in the second half.
The Broncos had 10+ points off the bench for the 13th time this season.
The Broncos trailed for 20:28 – the most they've trailed in a win this season.

QUOTABLE

"New Mexico came in across the ring and gave us some good blows," said head coach Leon Rice. "We got up and dusted ourselves off and started fighting again. It was an impressive job by our guys to just not get frustrated. We missed some shots in the first half that got them (New Mexico) running a bit. I just told our guys that we were right there, we had some open looks we didn't make, and now we have to rebound a little better, guard a little better and keep our poise offensively. I thought our guys did a great job of that."
"I'm focused on the team right now," said Max Rice. I care about winning and making the NCAA Tournament and just being out there with my guys. I've dreamed about times like these."
"I think we knew the things we needed to fix," said Chibuzo Agbo. "We needed to get their guys off of the offensive boards and we needed to stop letting them leak out and getting into transition. We knew those two things that were easy fixes so once we got those we felt like we were in the game."

WHAT'S NEXT

Boise State faces a quick turnaround to play at San Jose State, Saturday, Feb. 25. Tipoff from the Campus Events Center is at 5 p.m. MT on NBC Sports Bay Area and the Mountain West Network.