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.