2013 NCAA Tournament: Boise State Falls To La Salle

Boise State had earned their first-ever at-large bid, could they get their first-ever NCAA tourney win? Not this year.

La Salle had the hot hand on Wednesday night, as Tyrone Garland dominated the Broncos as a sixth-man lead scorer. Garland, shot 9-11 from the field, scoring 22 points. With him, Ramon Galloway added 21 points, Sam Mills and Jerrell Wright contributed 15 and 13 points respectively.

The Broncos on the other hand, had three main scorers and hardly anyone else. Anthony Drmic did a fantastic job, racking up 28 points and 4 rebounds, Derrick Marks and Ryan Watkins contributed 14 and 10 points as well. Boise State in any other game, would've scored enough to win as they out-rebounded and out-free threw the Explorers, shooting 49.1% in the game from the field. The problem was, La Salle shot 63.3% from the field including over 72% in the second half.

Typically, scoring 44 points in one half is enough to get you a win, unless you're down by too much (which the Broncos weren't). With about six minutes left in the game, BSU was shooting 55% from the field and hadn't trimmed the lead at all, La Salle was just hitting their shots.

So what happens now? The typical Bronco fan goes back to paying attention to spring practice. However, with only Kenny Buckner graduating and most of the team either freshman or sophomores, I would think that Boise residents should look a little closer at summer and fall practice for this team. As much as they accomplished this year, expectations can be exceeded next year and this team might be poised for a second straight invite to the Dance next year.