What head coach Leon Rice said about Boise State’s thrilling road victory over New Mexico

The Boise State men’s basketball team completed a regular-season sweep of New Mexico on Saturday with a 91-90 victory at The Pit.

The Broncos made a season-high 15 three-pointers and finished 15 of 35 (43 percent) from beyond the arc and 26 of 27 (96 percent) at the foul line.

“We scored 91 points on the road; that’s back-to-back 91-point games,” head coach Leon Rice said. The Broncos were coming off a 91-87 overtime win over Nevada.

Dylan Andrews scored a season-high 33 points to pace the Broncos (15-9, 7-6). The senior point guard was a perfect 10 of 10 at the line.

“That’s why it’s so nice to have a point guard that can make free throws,” Rice said. “We did a better job of executing our plays to get him the ball down the stretch.”

Drew Fielder made five three-pointers and finished with 18 points and five rebounds. Pearson Carmichael added 16 points and eight rebounds in a spot start for RJ Keene II, who didn’t play due to illness.

Luke Haupt scored a season-high 30 points to lead the Lobos (18-6, 9-4), who also lost to Boise State in December.

“He was just killing us, we couldn’t keep him in front,” Rice said. “He was kind of doing the same thing every time, that message was not getting through, but proud of our guys.”

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

On offensive explosion

“We’ve got things clicking offensively, but man were they clicking to start the game. So to hang with them, we had to make a heck of a lot of shots. We just needed our defense—we made a couple adjustments—and our defense kind of started to keep them in front of us a little bit better. They are hard to guard—especially in here—and they were really, really playing good.”

On Dylan Andrews’ breakthrough

“The practices. He’s allowed us to really coach him, he’s accepted it. And then when it works for you, that’s even better. It’s like ‘Oh, yeah, coach. This is working great for me, so I want to buy in and keep doing it.’ And that’s what we’ve got with a lot of guys on this team.”

On Pearson Carmichael’s strong game

“We talked a little bit about how … this was going to be an opportunity for (Carmichael), and he seized that opportunity. … He got eight rebounds, and he (actually) had nine. He dropped the one, and in the huddle we talked about it. ‘Hey, you’re going to have to squeeze it because these guys are coming and trying to take it from you and they’re physical.’”