PORTLAND — A first half to forget, a second half to remember.
At least that’s the way the Boise State men’s basketball team is going to see it.
In their first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven years, the eighth-seeded Broncos never recovered from a subpar first half, falling 64-53 to No. 9 Memphis in the first round Thursday at the Moda Center.
Whether it was nerves, Memphis’ defense or a combination of the two, the Broncos fell behind by 19 points at halftime, 38-19, and didn’t have quite enough to recover. Boise State outscored Memphis by eight in the second half, getting as close as five points on two occasions.
“The great thing about these guys is they went out the way they played all year,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “They just went down swinging. They didn’t roll over for anybody. They will be remembered for a long, long time, and the things they did helped this program to keep building.”
People are also reading…
Boise State’s historic season comes to an end with the loss. The Broncos are now 0-8 in NCAA Tournament games, but they still finished the season with program records for consecutive victories (14), conference wins (15) and total wins (27). They also won the program’s first outright Mountain West regular-season and tournament championships.
And all that after a 3-4 start.
“I’m proud of the guys, their will and determination, and their attitude to just keep going in front of all the adversity that we went through,” Boise State fifth-year senior Abu Kigab said. “A lot of teams would have folded early. You have a really talented team and you go 3-4, that can mentally stop some teams.
“But I’m so proud of our guys for just continuing to fight every single day, and our mentality was to win the day, and those guys did, every single day. So I’ve got to give a big shout-out to my teammates.”
As has been their habit all season, the Broncos returned from the locker room with a renewed focus. They outscored the Tigers 16-4, trimming Memphis’ advantage to 42-35 with 9:45 on the clock on Kigab’s driving layup.
The Broncos just kept chipping away, getting a putback from Naje Smith with 1:26 left to make it 56-51. After Memphis guard Landers Nolley II converted on a 1-and-1 opportunity, Boise State cut it to five points again, 58-53, this time courtesy of two free throws from Kigab with 1:16 on the clock.
“It’s definitely tough seeing it come to an end, but our guys battled,” Kigab said. “That’s all you can ask for. I thought everyone did a tremendous job of competing, and sometimes it’s like that. It’s basketball, and sometimes things don’t go your way.”
Memphis ended the Broncos’ comeback bid when 6-foot-11, 250-pound 2022 NBA Draft prospect Jalen Duren grabbed a steal under his own basket and laid it in with under a minute to go. Then senior guard Alex Lomax went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line over the last 41 seconds for the final margin.
Duren recorded a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds, while senior forward DeAndre Williams paced the Tigers in scoring with 14 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
“Don’t underestimate that team,” Rice said of Memphis. “I don’t think anybody that watched that game could. Those guys are great players and are so well coached. Coach (Penny) Hardaway does an amazing job and has got a great staff. They are doing good stuff, and they are going to be a hard, hard out for either Gonzaga or Georgia State.”
Kigab scored all of his team-leading 20 points in the second half, and freshman forward Tyson Degenhart added eight points, four rebounds and one assist and was one of eight Broncos to score. But the Broncos shot just 31.5% from the floor (17-for-54), their third-lowest shooting percentage of the season.
Kigab ended his college career with a dynamic half.
“He’s such a team guy that all he cares about is winning, and that showed tonight, and it showed all throughout the year,” Rice said. “We have a whole group of guys like that. That’s all they cared about. But (Kigab) was tremendous down the stretch of the season, and just a warrior, as I’ve said a hundred times, if not a thousand.
“I don’t even want to start thinking about it because that’s the last game he gets to play in a Bronco (uniform). He’s left a legacy here that will never, ever be forgotten.”
Boise State opened the game just 1-for-8 from the floor, with the Broncos’ only basket in that span coming when Marcus Shaver Jr. drove to the hoop and kicked out to Degenhart for a 3-pointer.
The Broncos fought back and knotted the game at 12-all after back-to-back 3-pointers from Degenhart and Emmanuel Akot. But Memphis pulled ahead with an 8-0 run in which they forced three Boise State turnovers for a 20-12 lead.
The Tigers closed out the first half on a 16-2 run that included holding the Broncos without a field goal over the final 3:59.
“(Memphis) kind of came out and got us on our heels a little bit with their defense, their presses,” Rice said. “The second half we did a much better job of being the aggressor. … These guys, they weren’t about to go away getting blown out.”