Boise State earns No. 6 seed for Mountain West Tournament

The Boise State men’s basketball team closed Mountain West play with five straight victories to move up the conference standings.

After dispatching Colorado State in Saturday’s regular-season finale, the Broncos landed the No. 6 seed for the Mountain West Tournament. Boise State (20-11, 12-8) will face No. 11 San Jose State (8-23, 3-17) at 9:30 p.m. Mountain time on Wednesday in an opening-round game at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The winner advances to meet No. 3 New Mexico (22-9, 13-7) in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The Broncos would’ve fallen to the No. 8 seed with a loss on Saturday at Colorado State (20-11, 11-9), but Boise State led by double figures for most of the second half en route to a commanding 78-67 victory.

“We had a chip on our shoulder coming in, because no one thought we would win this game,” Broncos senior point guard Dylan Andrews said. “You’ve seen how we are during the season, and you’ve seen how this season has been going. I feel like we’re always the underdog. And so I love that. We love that coming in.”

Utah State (25-6, 15-5) secured the outright regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for the MWC Tournament with a 94-90 home win over New Mexico.

The Aggies, who sit at No. 29 in the NCAA NET Rankings, are the MWC’s best at-large candidate for the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we solidified ourselves as an NCAA Tournament team,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “If you look at the numbers, we won the Mountain West outright, we got 25 wins and our metrics are great. We’re good on both sides of the ball, and to me, we’re now playing for seeding.”

San Diego State (20-10, 14-6) earned a hard-fought 89-86 home victory over UNLV (16-15, 11-9) on Friday night and landed the No. 2 seed after New Mexico’s loss.

Grand Canyon (20-11, 13-7), the MWC Tournament’s No. 4 seed, blew by Fresno State (13-18, 7-13) on Saturday, 85-60.

In the final game of the day, Nevada (20-11, 12-8) locked down the No. 5 seed with a 74-59 home victory over Air Force (3-28, 0-20). The Falcons are the first team to go winless in MWC play since San Jose State in 2014-15.

The top four seeds all receive a first-round bye.

Here are Wednesday’s first-round games at the MWC Tournament:

• No. 8 UNLV vs. No. 9 Wyoming, noon

• No. 5 Nevada vs. No. 12 Air Force, 2:30 p.m.

• No. 7 Colorado State vs. No. 10 Fresno State, 6 p.m.

• No. 6 Boise State vs. No. 11 Fresno State, 8:30 p.m.