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This Day In Sports…February 21, 2018:
Boise State notches its largest margin of victory ever in a Mountain West road game in an 87-54 thumping of Colorado State in Fort Collins. The margin ballooned to 42 with seven minutes remaining in the game before Boise State called off the dogs. Senior star Chandler Hutchison scored 27 points, one of 16 20-point games he logged during his final season. It was the Broncos’ biggest conference road win in 14 years—since an 89-50 WAC victory at SMU in 2004.
Colorado State was a downtrodden group, with coach Larry Eustachy having been placed on administrative leave on February 3 (he agreed to resign at the end of the month after reaching a settlement agreement with the university). Eustachy had been under investigation for alleged abusive behavior toward players and staff. The former Idaho, Utah State, Iowa State and Southern Miss coach has not been an official part of a basketball staff since, although after retiring to Boise, he served as a voluntary senior advisor to Rice last season at Boise State.
As for the game, it was seen as bad karma when interim coach Jase Herl walked into green-draped Moby Arena wearing a blue sportcoat. Meanwhile, coach Leon Rice may have created some karma of his own when he was whistled for a rare technical foul less than three minutes into the game for arguing a no-call on a possible goaltending. CSU led 10-4 at that point—and the blue-clad Broncos promptly outscored the Rams 46-19 the rest of the half to lead by 21 at the break.
Boise State had the want-to in Fort Collins. The first piece of evidence was rebounding. The Broncos out-boarded the Rams 26-9 in the first half and had a 20-rebound advantage for the game. Power forward Zach Haney had seven boards, a standard number that season for the 6-10 junior. But the ratio was amazing—five of them came on the offensive end. Chris Sengfelder pulled down 11 rebounds, and four of his were on the offensive glass.
The Broncos put the hammer down with a 20-0 run over 9½ minutes of the second half. Hutchison had his way with the Rams, scoring inside and out on his way to his 27 points. He went 10-for-18 from the field and 4-for-7 from three-point range. Justinian Jessup, who hailed from Longmont, CO, 40 miles south of Fort Collins, played well for family and friends with four three-balls and 16 points. And oh by the way, Jessup had six rebounds. Boise State improved to 22-6 on the season and ensured at least a top three finish in the Mountain West.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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