What Boise State coach Leon Rice said after loss to Grand Canyon

Broncos fall to 5-6 in Mountain West play

Boise State Broncos head coach Leon Rice. | Brian Losness-Imagn Images

The Boise State men’s basketball team couldn’t hang with Grand Canyon on Friday night in Phoenix. 

The Lopes outscored the Broncos 43-28 in the second half and finished the game 29 of 49 (59 percent) from the floor in a dominant 86-69 victory at Global Credit Union Arena. 

“We weathered a lot of storms,” head coach Leon Rice said. “In an atmosphere like this … the way they play in here, you’ve got to respond and weather about eight or nine storms, and we probably weathered five or six. And in the second half, we didn’t weather them very good.”

Senior guard Jaden Henley scored a game-high 20 points for the Lopes (14-7, 7-3). Henley added six assists, five rebounds and two blocks. 

Grand Canyon had five blocks to Boise State’s (13-9, 5-6) zero.

Efe Demirel, Nana Owusu-Anane and Dusty Stromer all scored 16 points apiece for the Lopes. 

Javan Buchanan led the Broncos, who entered Friday on a four-game winning streak, with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists. 

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

On Grand Canyon’s physicality 

“They got even more physical with us again, knocked us off stuff. That created enough extra possessions that they got a little arm’s length on us, and I think we got a little bit trigger-happy a little too quickly. … We’ve got some shooters that have to keep working at it, keep working at it, because you have a responsibility to your teammates if you’re going to shoot those shots.”

On Grand Canyon’s strong shooting 

“They create a problem with their quickness. They think they can go by every one of us, and there were a few times where we just didn’t move our feet good enough and they get by us. And when we do come and help, they kick it out and they made all of those. They were really efficient from the three line. They didn’t take a lot of them, but they took advantage of it and they took good ones. That’s a little bit of the problem there with their quickness. We have to guard better. They break down our defense too easily.”

On bouncing back against Nevada 

“They’ve been playing tough, and they can really guard. They’re really physical. They’re going to come in and it’s going to be a really, really physical game, we know that. We need a great crowd, we need a great atmosphere. Our guys have been great at responding.”