Spartan Basketball in Bronco Land

The Spartans have never won in Boise and that streak continued.

They came in after the bye-weekend energetic and ready, but faced a Bronco buzzsaw that cut up the Spartans with the most made three-pointers against them so far this season, leading to a 94-71 Spartan loss.

The Bronco’s relentless firepower and confidence was naturally high coming in against the 3-16 Spartans and easily withstood SJSU’s offensive spurts and pressure.

The good teams know they can be more liberal against the Spartans with the 3 point attempts, if they keep applying pressure against the inconsistent Spartans.

First Half

The Spartans looked out-of-sync for the first 5 minutes; getting stuck under the rim, missing in the paint and being out-hustled. The Spartans then found a good run to challenge the Broncos and keep the score close, as they’ve done with other top teams in the first half.

It became an entertaining back-and-forth of 3-pointers on both sides. The Spartans were 5 of 9 on three’s and the Broncos were 9 of 19 from beyond the arc. The Spartan team highlight was a 13-2 run in the middle of the first half.

In the half, Ryan Welage led the Spartans with 10 points and Keith Fisher was consistently aggressive to the rim with 9 points.

Bronco, Chris Sengfelder, from Spartan Coach Prioleau’s alma mater, Fordham University, was an offensive nightmare against the Spartans. Previously in a multi-game shooting slump, Sengfelder had 17 points in the half and continued to rain down on the Spartans into the second half ending up with 31 points for the game for the Broncos.

With nine turnovers in the half by the Spartans leading to 14 Bronco points, the Broncos collectively “flipped-a-switch” with about 3 minutes left in the half. They found their offensive groove and defensive teeth to overwhelm the Spartans and pulled out to a double digit 47-34 lead to end the half.

Second Half:

The Broncos kept the offense coming and coming to keep pulling away. They poured in a total of 18 three-pointers for the game. Everyone was scoring, as they say, and the Broncos weren’t letting up.

The Spartans did sprinkle in points between the Bronco three-point fest. Welage finished with 22 points and Fisher earned a career-high 16 points, who kept up his aggressive play, as he’s done all year.

The Boise reserves finally made it into the game with a minute and a half left to let up a bit and the Spartans admirably kept their gusto up to the last second, fighting all the way.

Though the Spartans had the higher scoring percentage, their offense continues to leave a significant amount of points on the table. If they can just get over that hump, they can certainly stay competitive in games longer.