A two-game skid
BOISE, Idaho – The Aggies blew a 14-point lead and two chances to win the game – in regulation and in overtime – as Boise State University nipped them 78-77 Saturday night.
With USU down 77-72 with 1:20 left in overtime, Shawn Daniels put back his own miss to cut the lead to three. The Broncos missed their next field goal attempt, and USU point guard Bernard Rock went coast-to-coast to cut the lead to one.
After USU and BSU traded a free throw, BSU’s Clint Hordemann missed both free throws with 13 seconds left. That gave USU a chance to win, down only 78-77. But Rock lost the ball – three times – and the clock ran out without the Aggies getting off a shot.
“To end the game on that note is awfully hard,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “That last play we didn’t get done what needed to get done.”
However, Morrill placed more blame on the blowing of the 57-43 lead with 8:35 left in the game.
“What we need to look at is we were up 14 and couldn’t get any defensive stops,” he said.
Kejaun Woods and Hordemann hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 17-2 run that only stopped after back-up center Trever Tillman (who only averages 4.4 points a game) gave the Broncos the lead, 60-59. Tillman ended with 18 points.
“Tillman just killed us,” Morrill said. “He was huge.”
Small forward Curtis Bobb gave USU a chance to win in regulation when he tipped in a shot to tie the game at 67. Then, on the defensive end, he dove for a loose rebound on the floor and called time out before sliding out of bounds with 25 seconds left.
But Rock’s tough fade-away didn’t fall, sending the game to overtime.
The loss almost completely eliminates USU from an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Now the Aggies will likely have to win the Big West Tournament and grab the automatic bid to get in. The loss didn’t hurt USU in terms of seeding, as it is locked into second place.
But the loss hurts, all the same.
“It was a tough loss,” Morrill said, after acknowledging it was meaningless to the standings.
The loss marks the end of some records. It is the first time since the end of the 1998-99 season the Aggies have lost back-to-back games.
It was also the first time USU lost with Tony Brown scoring 20 or more points. Tough double teams of leading scorer Daniels gave both Brown and Rock a chance to shoot a lot from outside.
And they cashed in, tying for a game-high 22 points. Combined, they shot 12 of 19 from the 3-point line. At the start of the second half, it looked like the NBA all-star weekend 3-point shoot-out as they traded treys.
“We just got hot,” Morrill said.
With the 3-point line helping USU, maybe the Aggies should have stepped back when they were shooting free-throws. In the second half, USU shot 62 percent from 3-point land while only hitting 42 percent of its foul shots.
Daniels and center Dimitri Jorssen were the main culprits. From the line, they hit a combined six of 16.
USU will play two straight home games to finish out the Big West regular season – University of California at Santa Barbara Thursday, and Cal Poly on ESPN at 5 p.m. Saturday.