Goodbye, Laradise: Boise State’s final trip to sky-high Wyoming ends with big W

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Idaho Statesman) — For many sports teams around the Mountain West, the annual trip to Laramie, Wyoming, is a daunting proposition. It’s difficult to get to. The weather is often unpleasant, quite cold and windy, even though the basketball teams at least get to go inside.

The altitude makes it difficult to breathe, and the Cowboys aren’t afraid to tell everyone how high it is — nearly 7,200 feet (2,200 meters), over 1.3 miles — by plastering it across the athletic facilities.

It’s resulted in a nickname — Laradise — that is a source of pride for the home team and something to joke about for visitors. And the programs leaving the Mountain West for the rejuvenated Pac-12, including Boise State, probably will be happy they don’t have to book any future trips.

The Broncos’ last night in Laradise went quite well, though — as many trips have before. Boise State (11-8, 3-5) won its second straight game after a long losing streak, defeating Wyoming (11-8, 2-6) by an 81-65 score on Tuesday night in Arena-Auditorium.

The victory extended Boise State’s winning streak over the Cowboys to seven and gave the team a 12-4 overall record in Laramie.

The outcome was all but sealed at halftime, thanks to a 27-4 run by the Broncos — there were separate 18-0 and 9-0 spurts — to close out the first half with a 38-18 lead over Wyoming, which has lost four straight in January.

“It takes a lot to win up here,” Boise State coach Leon Rice told KBOI in his postgame interview. “They beat UNLV by 32 up here. If you don’t have the right mindset, it can get away from you, and it can just snowball on you. We’ve had a great approach.”

The Broncos struggled with the Cowboys’ zone defense early in the game and fell into old habits: chucking up shots from distance and settling for contested chances. That allowed Wyoming to lead for most of the first 10 minutes after Boise State started just 1-for-9 from the field. The Broncos’ only bucket in that stretch came off a deep three from redshirt senior guard RJ Keene.

“It took us a couple of minutes to settle into it and get a little more physical against (the zone),” Rice said. “We’ve been having great success in the post, and we didn’t want the zone to get us out of that.”

Success finally arrived when the Broncos returned to zipping the ball around the paint and driving to the basket, as they’d done in recent games, including in the 79-73 win over Colorado State last Friday that snapped a four-game losing streak.

Trailing 14-11, BSU went on an 18-0 run across five-plus minutes to take a 29-14 lead. A two-point bucket from Wyoming forward Gavin Gores broke the streak, but the Broncos responded to build a 20-point halftime advantage. The change in play brought junior forward Andrew Meadow into the thick of the action. He ended the night with a team-high 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting, only behind the Cowboys’ Leland Walker, who scored a game-high 30 points.

“Once we started rebounding the ball and we were able to push in transition, I saw a lot of gaps,” Meadow told KBOI. “So I just want to attack those guys.”

The Cowboys opened the second half with an 8-0 run, including their first two 3-pointers of the game. to try to make things interesting. But their offense dried up and Boise State quickly extended the lead back to 20, thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Meadow.

Junior forward Drew Fielder scored 15 points for the Broncos, point guard Dylan Andrews added 14 and senior forward Javan Buchanan got 10. The Broncos shot 29-for-59 (49.2%) from the field and 10-for-26 (38.5%) from deep, as well as a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line.

Wyoming shot 23-for-51 (45.1%) but just 5-for-19 (26.3%) from behind the 3-point line.

“I don’t want to come play here again,” Meadow told KBOI with a laugh after the game. “It’s a cool place, the arena is cool, it’s cool to play in something that’s the top of college basketball. But I’m glad I’m undefeated here and don’t have to come back.”

As they try to climb back into the conference race, the Broncos return home to face Air Force (3-16, 0-8) at ExtraMile Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Falcons are struggling mightily and in turmoil, having lost 12 straight games, last winning on Nov. 23 against Indiana University-Indianapolis. Air Force’s head coach, Joe Scott, was suspended indefinitely last weekend amid a player treatment inquiry. Jon Jordan is serving as the interim coach.