Boise State continued their run through the WAC Tournament Friday evening
with a very hard fought 86-85 win over the #4 seed Fresno State Bulldogs.
Boise State had previously beaten #9 seed Tulsa, #1 seed Nevada. The
Broncos were visibly tired late, and allowed a double-digit lead to evaporate in
the final 2 minutes as Fresno took the lead with less than a minute left, but
Coby Karl hit a couple of clutch free-throws with 8 seconds left, and the
Broncos held on just long enough as they wore down late in the game, having
played in their 3rd game in 4 days.
Besides Mr. Reliability, (Jason Ellis), Boise State has relied heavily on the
trio of Coby Karl, Jermaine Blackburn, and Eric Lane for scoring during their
run. Tonight, however, Coby couldn't find the Ocean from the deck of the
Titanic, shooting a putrid 0-11 from the field, so JB and ELane picked up the
slack, scoring 22 and 14 respectively.
The bad news on the night, however, was the injury to a vastly improved Seth Robinson. Robinson, who was injured with 12+ minutes left in the 2nd half,
left with 8 points and 3 rebounds. Robinson had become a very important
part of the Boise State rotation, as the 1st big man off the bench.
Robinson injured his shoulder and returned from the locker-room in a sling with
ice. His status for the Championship game is uncertain at best but more
likely doubtful.
With Robinson's status uncertain, Kareem Lloyd will need to step up his
game. Lloyd played well in Robinson's absence, but picked up some bad
fouls and fouled out with around 8 minutes left in the game. While he was
in the game, however, he did show what he can bring to the team, scoring 5
points and grabbing 4 rebounds in 12 minutes. He did play good defense,
but will need to play in control against UTEP for the Broncos to have a chance.