Broncos Put Away Utah Valley State 87-77

A good team wins on the road. If the 2007-08 Bronco basketball team is going to finish the season in the upper half of the WAC, their fourth straight win on the road is going to give them confidence heading into the conference season.

Boise State scored their fourth consecutive road victory last night with an 87-77 win over Utah Valley State. 

Forward Reggie Larry led the Broncos with 18 points, two steals and two blocked shots, while Matt  Nelson poured in 17 points and controlled the boards with 10 rebounds.  UVSC was led by Ryan Toolson with 22 points and Jordan Brady with 20.

"Our defense let us down last Saturday at home, so we talked about our defense making a statement and stepping up," said Boise State coach Greg Graham. "I won't say I knew what they were going to do, but with Toolson we knew they were going to start firing some 3s. We talked about everyone guarding their guy and playing solid. Anthony (Thomas) got a couple steals and some breakaways and Reggie got one. Those are big because they're quick easy buckets. Both ends were working hard to score tonight."

With the outcome in doubt, Larry came up with back-to-back steals and then blocked a Brady shot, which turned into two free throws from Tyler Tiedemann that gave the Broncos a 72-64 lead with three minutes to play. Thomas followed with one of his five steals on the night and Larry found a wide-open Matt Bauscher, who dropped in a 3-pointer to give the Broncos their biggest lead of the game at 75-64 with two minutes to play. 

Boise State canned seven-of-eight free throws down the stretch to preserve the win, their seventh in 10 tries.  Utah Valley State dropped to 3-7.