Bronco men need solid shooting in rematch with Pack

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The winner will remain one game behind WAC-leading Utah State in the loss column.








Greg Graham called it the best half that his Boise State men's basketball team played all season.

The Broncos outscored Nevada 53-34 in the second half on Jan. 19 in Reno, paving the way for a 95-80 win over the Wolf Pack.

Graham's team made 15-of-27 shots from the field after halftime to erase a four-point deficit. The Broncos sealed the win by making 17-of-23 from the foul line. They made 13-of-22 shots from 3-point range.

"They obviously lit us up at our place," Wolf Pack coach Mark Fox said.

The Broncos (17-6 overall, 8-3 WAC) say they'll need the same kind of performance at 7 p.m. Thursday when the Wolf Pack (16-8, 8-3) come to town for a pivotal conference game (KBOI, 670 AM and KTVB 24/7).

The winner will stay just one game behind first-place Utah State (18-7, 8-2) in the loss column, while the loser likely will fall to fourth place and have the same number of losses as fifth-place Hawaii.

"This rematch is big," BSU forward Mark Sanchez said.

Since losing to BSU, the Wolf Pack have won six of their past seven games. Their only loss came at Utah State, which is unbeaten at home this season.

Nevada committed only four turnovers Monday night in an 85-80 home win over Utah State to avenge that earlier loss.

"We have a much greater understanding of how we want to play on offense," Fox said. "We're showing signs of maturity, but we still have our moments of immaturity."

Nevada, which starts a freshman and two sophomores, is a different team from the first meeting, Graham said.

"I just think their young guys have become more solid," Graham said. "They got off to a slow start because of how young they were. (Fox) brought them along slowly. They've always been good, it just took them some time."

The Broncos, meanwhile, are coming off their worst loss of the season - 99-80 at New Mexico State on Saturday. BSU hasn't lost consecutive games since November, when it fell to Washington State and Montana State.

The Broncos are eager to redeem themselves from the latest loss, particularly forward Matt Nelson.

Nelson, who averages 15.2 points and 7.6 rebounds while making 64.7 percent of his shots (seventh in the country), had just three points and seven turnovers. He said he won't try to do too much against Nevada to compensate for his game against New Mexico State.

"After that last one, I've just got to move on," Nelson said. "Everyone has rough games. That was mine."

A silver lining in Nelson's performance was it gave Sanchez more minutes with the starters. He responded by pulling down eight rebounds and scoring four points in 13 minutes.

"I think the big thing is feeling comfortable when you get in," Sanchez said. "If the coaches have confidence in you, you can only have confidence in yourself."

Graham said the BSU bench has been playing well. In the first meeting against Nevada, four bench players combined for 14 points to back all five starters, who were in double figures.

"That's going to be important down the stretch," Graham said. "Our bench played well (the last game) and needs to do that again."

Fox's top concern is trying to slow BSU's offense. The Broncos are the WAC's highest-scoring team (82.5 points) and lead the nation in field-goal percentage (51.6 percent).

"I'm going to try to get six guys on the court because they score from everywhere," Fox said. "They're a terrific offensive team. You pick your poison. You're not going to shut out anyone, but you hope to slow a couple of them down."

 

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Larry leads Broncos' charge


BOISE, Idaho -- Reggie Larry is the other guy in the race for Western Athletic Conference player of the year award.

Softly, the Boise State player says he should be "The Guy," though others mostly focus on Utah State's Jaycee Carroll and Nevada's Marcelus Kemp as the top candidates to succeed three-time player of the year Nick Fazekas of Nevada.

"I think about it," Larry said. "Do I think I'm going to get it? Probably not. Do I think I should? Yeah. But it's more about getting this conference championship done."

I think I would be a good candidate for it, but it's not what I came into the season trying to get. I was trying to win. We were picked fifth (in the preseason polls). We're ... second right now. We could end up the first seed (for the WAC tournament). I think with all those accomplishments, how the year has been and my individual things I should be a strong candidate, but if it doesn't come my way it doesn't matter."

Larry will lead the Broncos, 17-6 overall, 8-3 in the WAC, into tonight's game against Nevada at Taco Bell Arena. Utah State leads the conference at 8-2. Nevada, Boise State and New Mexico State are tied at 8-3.

Larry, a 6-foot-6, 224-pound senior, has player-of-the-year credentials. He is third in the conference scoring race at 18.9 points per game, trailing only Carroll (21.8) and Kemp (19.9). He leads the conference in rebounding at 9.3 per game, which is 1.6 rebounds ahead of Nevada's JaVale McGee, who is second. Larry is sixth in the WAC in field goal percentage at 56.2 percent and also is sixth in 3-point percentage, at 43.5 percent. And he's fifth in the WAC in steals at 1.52 per game.

Larry transferred to Boise State after playing two years at the College of Southern Idaho, a Twin Falls junior college. He had come from Barringer High in Newark, N.J., on a similar journey the legendary Edgar Jones made in 1975. Jones, the only Nevada basketball player to have his jersey retired, and Larry walked the same tough streets of Newark, just three decades apart.

Larry wanted to get away from the streets and everything they represented.

Larry knew Andre Tippett, the former New England Patriots linebacker who was inducted into the Pro Hall of Fame this year, made it out. But Larry, who didn't know Jones, hadn't heard of a basketball player who made it.

"Not too many people made it out of high school," Larry said. "It was very tough. It was hard to stay focused. But when you don't want to go that route (to the streets), you do whatever you've got to do to maintain your cool. I just knew I didn't want to get in trouble and I love basketball.

"I wanted to stay away from anything that would bring me down, even though it was hard. My friends were doing it. I was afraid of the punishment for doing the bad things. I was afraid of the consequences."

He credits his parents, the Boys and Girls Club and Barringer coach Anthony Fischetti with helping him find the right path.

"I wasn't near being one of the best players Coach ever had, but I was the first one to get out," Larry said. "I'll be the first one to graduate (from college) and the first one to make him proud.

"If he was going to choose a (Barringer all-time) starting lineup I probably wouldn't even be in it. They (the other players) just chose the other route. I wanted to leave. I probably was the only one who decided to leave and it all paid off well."

Larry will graduate in December, Boise State coach Greg Graham said.

Larry has a couple of sides to him, though both are reasonably quiet. He can say he should be the WAC player of the year and does it respectfully without boasting. And there's that genuine humility when he talks about the Barringer players who were better than him.

"For the most part, he's pretty quiet, but he's very perceptive," Graham said. "He may not be saying things, but he's paying attention and being alert. He's always watching and listening to what's going on. He's a very astute kid that way. He's a good kid."

 

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Pack wants to cool Broncos down tonight


BOISE, Idaho -- It has been nearly four weeks since the Nevada basketball team was felled by lightning strikes from Boise.

OK, it wasn't lightning. It just felt like it for the Wolf Pack, as the Boise State Broncos kept hitting 3-pointers. The Broncos stormed back from a four-point deficit at the half to smoke Nevada, 95-80, behind amazing 3-point shooting, hitting 13 of 22 for 59.1 percent.

Now, Nevada gets a second chance against Boise State tonight at Taco Bell Arena. It will be the Pack's fourth game in eight days.

Both teams are fighting for the Western Athletic Conference regular season title, which the Pack has won the last four seasons. Utah State leads the conference at 8-2 and Nevada, Boise State and New Mexico State are tied at 8-3.

"They're as explosive an offense as you'll see and they're very diverse," Nevada coach Mark Fox said. "They've got great inside scoring and great outside scoring. That's hard to defend."

A lot of different Broncos hurt the Pack in January, but none more than 6-foot-7 forward Tyler Tiedeman, who scored 27 points, hitting 8 of 11 from the field, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. But all five Boise State starters scored in double figures.

Boise State will take a 17-6 record into tonight's game and Nevada is 16-8.

Broncos' coach Greg Graham said the Pack poses challenges for his team.

"Honestly, we've got to slow down the big three," Graham said, "Marcelus (Kemp) is playing very well. Armon (Johnson) is playing very well. The big fellow (JaVale McGee) is controlling the paint. He had six blocks against Utah State (in an 85-80 Nevada win Monday). We have to defend better than we've been defending."

The Broncos played well defensively in the first game against Nevada, but are playing for the first time since losing at New Mexico State, 99-80, last Saturday.

"We've been scoring so it's kind of deceiving. For the game at Nevada, we gave up 80, but we scored 95," Graham said. "Sometimes, it is deceiving because of the way we play. The way we play, there's more possessions. We need to defend so we can get out and run, so we can score."