Broncos advance to Wooden Legacy Semifinals with win over Anteaters

Final: Boise State 71, UC Irvine 64

Boise State started a bit slow but finished strong, beating UC-Irvine 71-64 and advancing to the semifinals of the Wooden Legacy Classic. It was the first loss of the year for the Anteaters (4-1) and the win lifted the Broncos above .500 for the first time this season. The 3-2 Broncos will face the winner of Boston College and Michigan State tomorrow at 3:30—the game between the Spartans and Eagles begins momentarily.

The enormous Mamadou Ndiaye was relatively harmless after the Broncos decided to attack him despite his massive inside presence. Anthony Drmic led all scorers with 21 pts and shot 50% from beyond the arc. Sophomore Chandler Hutchison contributed 10 boards and finished with a double-double (13 pts, 10 rebounds) and Nick Duncan shot naught but threes on the day, sinking 4 of them (4-11).

Good early resumé win for the Broncos who'll have an even bigger opportunity tomorrow against presumably #3 Michigan State. Don't forget, we'll have a football game going on at the same time, so DVR or PiP what you can. Final stats are below.