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Boise State (20-12, 9-9 MW) held on to a 31-point margin of victory over San Jose State (7-24, 1-17 MW) and set a new record for the largest margin of victory ever in a Mountain West Tournament game. At one time the Broncos held a 42-point lead. Boise State’s win broke BYU's 27-point margin of victory over Colorado State set in 2008.
The No. 6 seeded Broncos came out strong in the first half with a 25-0 romp against the 11th seeded Spartans in the opening round of the Mountain West tournament. Boise State’s fast start was led by Derrick Marks, who led the Broncos with 17 points. San Jose State came out flat and was almost 9 minutes into the game before Chris Cunningham made a free throw to finally put the Spartans on the board. When Boise State went in at the half they were up 46-14.
Besides the 17 points for Boise State, Marks also had 4 rebounds and 2 assists, but Ryan Watkins was just as impressive. He scored 14 points, had 4 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal. Junior Igor Hadziomerovic contributed 10 points, 1 rebound, an assist and a steal to complete Broncos rout of the Spartans. The final score of 83-52 (135 total points) and the Broncos 46 first-half points broke the records for the most points scored in an opening round of a Mountain West tournament.
For San Jose State, Cunningham ended the night with 11 points and 9 rebounds. The Spartan’s top performer was freshman Rashad Muhammad who had 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 assist. But their efforts were not enough Wednesday as their team closed out their 2013-2014 season.
Boise State will next face third-seeded Nevada (15-16, 10-8 MW) in the quarterfinals Thursday at 9:30 PM MT in Las Vegas.
