Boise State
1-0,0-0Mountain West
Oakland
1-1,0-0Horizon
Boise State Dominates in Season Opener
11/6/2024 9:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Broncos dropped Oakland 87-43
BOISE, Idaho — Boise State opened its season with a commanding 87-43 victory over Oakland on Wednesday night at ExtraMile Arena in front of the largest crowd ever for a home opener in program history. The Broncos took control early, surging to a 48-18 lead by halftime and never looked back.
O'Mar Stanley and Andrew Meadow led Boise State with 15 points. The 15 by Meadow were a career-high as the sophomore was 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Tyson Degenhart had 13 points and five rebounds while Dylan Anderson, in his first career start, had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting.
The Broncos' offense was efficient, shooting 53.2% from the field (33-of-62) and connecting on 9 of 20 three-pointers. They had 22 assists on the 33 field goals made.
Boise State's defense slowed down Oakland by holding them to 27.3% shooting (18-of-66). Allen David Mukeba led Oakland with 10 points, but the team struggled to find offensive rhythm, hitting only 3 of 26 from beyond the arc.
The Broncos jumped out to a 13-2 lead after they made their first five shots of the game, and they then finished the first half by scoring 16 of the final 18 points to take a 30-point lead going into halftime.
In the second half, Boise State never let its lead fall below 26 points.
The attendance of 10,626 was the largest home opener for Boise State. It was the first home opener ever over 10,000.
The Broncos return to action on Saturday with a road game at San Francisco. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. MT on ESPN+.
NOTES
Boise State's 23 assists were its most against a Division I opponent since Nov. 19, 2021 at Temple (25).
O'Mar Stanley led the team with eight rebounds.
The Broncos had a +14 rebounding margin (45-31).
Boise State was 12-of-14 from the free throw line while Oakland was 4-of-9.
Nine different Broncos scored a point. RJ Keene was the only Bronco scorer who did not have a field goal made. He was 0-for-1 from the field, but he was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe and added six assists and seven rebounds.
Alvaro Cardenas scored nine points with his six assists in his Boise State debut.
Javan Buchanan scored nine points in his Boise State debut as well.
In addition to 23 assists, Boise State only had seven turnovers.
The 27.3% shooting by Oakland was the lowest by a Boise State opponent since the 2023-24 season opener against Vanguard on Nov. 7, 2023 (27.3%).
