What Boise State’s Leon Rice said following road rout of Wyoming

The Boise State men’s basketball team closed the first half on a scoring barrage en route to an 81-65 Mountain West victory over Wyoming on Tuesday.

The Broncos (11-8, 3-5) went on a 27-2 run that lasted for more than seven minutes before Leland Walker hit a jumper near the end of the half. Boise State led 38-18 at the break and was never threatened in the second half by Wyoming (11-8, 2-6).

“They came out pretty aggressive in the first four minutes,” Broncos head coach Leon Rice said of Wyoming. “The trick to playing at (altitude) is you’ve got to get to that second wind. First wind, you’re like ‘Whoa, my lungs are burning.’ I never let them go very far into that because I’ve done that way back in the day, and it takes too long to recover and it can ruin the whole night. So you saw a lot of quick subs. And then on that second run … that’s when we blew the game open and got up 20.”

Andrew Meadow paced the Broncos with 21 points while Drew Fielder added 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Dylan Andrews also had a strong game with 14 points and two assists.

Walker led the shorthanded Cowboys with 30 points.

Here are the highlights from Rice’s postgame radio interview.

On improved ball movement

“We’re starting to figure out how to play with each other … and where the strengths are. I mean, we had some great plays. Because they’re going to make a shot and the crowd goes nuts, and you’re still up 15, 14. But if you don’t respond now, all of a sudden it’s 11, and then eight. And when you’re playing on the road, you can get a little tight. It seemed like those guys made big-time plays at those moments, together. We had a lot of assists tonight, and we had a lot of great plays that didn’t end in an assist.

“I’m really pleased at the progress these guys are making because of the work they’re doing.”

On Wyoming’s zone defense

“It took us a couple minutes to settle into it and get a little more physical against it, because we’d been having great success in the post and we didn’t want the zone to get us out of that. At first, we threw the ball around and we stood next to guys. Well, then we started sealing guys and getting shots for each other.”