Boise State pads NCAA Tournament resume, snaps Colorado State’s eight-game winning streak in Mountain West finale

The Boise State men’s basketball team closed the Mountain West regular season on Saturday with a 78-67 road victory over Colorado State.

It was the fifth straight victory for the Broncos (20-11, 12-8), who snapped Colorado State’s (20-11, 11-9) eight-game winning streak.

Drew Fielder once again paced Boise State with 23 points and six rebounds. The junior center scored a career-high 33 points in Tuesday’s win over San Diego State.

Jase Butler had 15 points to lead the Rams.

Both teams will be in action on Wednesday during the opening round of the MWC Tournament. Boise State has an outside chance at landing an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament while Colorado State will need to win the MWC Tournament for the second straight year to make a return trip to the dance.

Here are three takeaways from Boise State’s latest victory.

Broncos start fast on the road

Four days after jumping out to a big early lead against San Diego State, the Broncos got off to another quick start on Saturday.

Boise State scored the game’s first six points and seized an 8-2 advantage on a Fielder layup. A Dylan Andrews coast-to-coast transition finish extended the lead to seven, and Dominic Parolin buried a three-pointer to put the Broncos up 15-7.

Colorado State roared back to take its first lead at 21-20 on a Butler back-cut layup. The Broncos closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 36-28 lead into the locker room.

Five straight Andrew Meadow points to open the second half put the visitors up 41-28, and Boise State held a comfortable lead the rest of the way at Moby Arena.

Rebounding prowess

For the third straight game, Boise State dominated the glass at both ends of the court.

The Broncos won the rebounding battle 37-21 while grabbing 13 offensive boards.

In its previous outing against San Diego State, Boise State out-rebounded the Aztecs 37-15 with 12 offensive boards. The Broncos grabbed 17 offensive rebounds on Feb. 28 against Fresno State for a 44-30 edge on the glass.

Boise State entered Saturday with the top rebounding margin in the MWC at +7.1 per game.

Mountain West Tournament seeding

Colorado State is locked into the No. 7 seed at next week’s MWC Tournament.

The Broncos will be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed depending on the results of Saturday night’s MWC action.

With an NCAA NET Ranking of No. 60 entering the weekend, Boise State will likely need to win four games in four days at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas to secure an NCAA Tournament berth.