In a night of big moments, a timeout was ‘winning play’ for Boise State hoops

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — There were plenty of crucial moments in Boise State basketball’s roller-coaster 91-87 overtime win on Tuesday night over the Nevada Wolf Pack.

There was the fact that the Broncos saw a 20-point lead evaporate, having led by 30-10 in the first half. Or junior forward Andrew Meadow’s two missed free throws in the final seconds of regulation that allowed Nevada to send the game to overtime on a running floater at the buzzer. Senior guard Dylan Andrew’s step-back 3-pointer with a hand in his face to give the Broncos an 88-85 lead with just 43 seconds left in overtime was obviously huge.

But the play of the night was arguably a called timeout from redshirt senior guard RJ Keene.

With Boise State leading 89-87 in the final seconds of overtime, a fumbled rebound appeared to be bouncing out of bounds to give Nevada the final possession of the game. But in the blink of an eye, Keene managed to get his hands on the ball and call a timeout with one foot down on the court, before tumbling into the tightly-packed courtside fans.

Crew chief Michael Reed saw Keene’s timeout call and the Broncos got the ball, and ExtraMile Arena breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s a huge energy play,” senior forward Javan Buchanan said after the game. “The crowd got into it. It’s just a winning play.”

Andrews went on to draw a foul on the ensuing inbounds play and sank both free throws to cap off the victory for Boise State (14-9, 6-6 Mountain West) against the Wolf Pack (16-7, 8-4), who had beaten them earlier in the season in Reno.

The home team put together its best 12-minute stretch of the season in the first half, racing out to a 30-10 lead. The Broncos looked both faster and stronger, particularly inside the paint.

BSU ended the first half outrebounding Nevada 19-9 and had scored 20 points in the paint to take a 39-28 advantage.

“That was about as good as this team’s played this season for that long a stretch,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. “… People maybe discounted (us) because the teams we were playing didn’t have the greatest record, so to play (like that) against a team that’s really playing well is special.”

The Wolf Pack were up to the task of a comeback, though, scoring 51 points after intermission. Led by senior guard Cory Camper Jr.’s game-high 35 points, Nevada battled back to eventually tie the game at 60-60 with over seven minutes left. The Wolf Pack would go on to take their first lead of the game shortly after, at 63-62.

“In the old days, you got a lead like that, and you were relatively safe. And nowadays basketball is so different, it’s almost fool’s gold,” Rice said. “You can’t decline taking the lead, but credit them. I knew they weren’t going to roll over.”

Camper was accompanied by 24 points from guard Tayshawn Comer, while Boise State retaliated with a team-high 25 points from Andrews and 23 from Buchanan. The two teams continued to spar down the final minutes, but a rare off-night from Meadow — who shot just 2-for-9 from the field for eight points — was encapsulated by his pair of missed free throws with just six seconds left. Nevada brought down the rebound, and Comer hit the game-tying floater at the buzzer.

“I looked at that like the game against SDSU and how we weren’t able to come out on top after we fell back,” Andrews said, referencing the Broncos’ 110-107 triple-overtime loss at San Diego State on Jan. 3. “I feel like the team felt the same way,” Andrews continued, “and we knew for a fact we couldn’t lose this game.”

After Meadow opened the overtime period with a layup, Andrews took over and scored eight of the Broncos’ 12 OT points. Keene’s heads-up timeout play with nine seconds remaining allowed the Broncos to keep the ball and close out the game. Rice said the team practices catching the ball inbounds and calling a timeout for that exact situation on Tuesday night.

“These guys are showing up for amazing practices, and it’s paying off for them,” Rice said. “Because that would have been the devastating … You make so much progress, you’re playing such a great game, and you don’t find a way to get it done.”

The win was Boise State’s second over one of the conference’s top five teams in the standings. The Broncos’ next chance to do that comes Saturday at The Pit in Albuquerque, where New Mexico (18-4, 9-2) awaits for an 8 p.m. Mountain time tipoff. BSU beat the Lobos 62-53 at home on New Year’s Eve.