Broncos hold against the Aztecs to win at home

In front of a sellout crowd, the Broncos looked to advance their Mountain West Conference agenda of winning a lot of their games. With dreams of Coach Leon Rice wading through a very Boise River the home crowd would be pumped to see the Broncos take a much-needed win against a formidable San Diego State squad.

The Broncos wanted to put on a show for the home crowd. And Chandler Hutchison would lead the way in super-star fashion. Hutchison managed to score Boise State’s first 16 points. He could do no wrong as he would go 4-6 from three and 9-13 from the field in the first half.

Hutchison would end the half with a game-high 25 points and a team-high five rebounds.

The other Broncos wouldn’t be left out, but that wouldn’t happen till about the 11-minute mark. Jestinian Jessup would score for the other Broncos on a jumper.

Jessup would end the half with just the two points and an assist.

Alex Hobbs would have a relatively quiet half with only three shots—all misses.

San Diego State’s Malik Pope would lead the game with seven rebounds at the half and lead the Aztecs in scoring with eight.

Even with all the momentum the Broncos had, San Diego State would still go into the half with only a six point deficit, 40-34.

The second half opened up with an Aztec 6-0 run and they immediately had tied the game. While Hutchison was on fire, and putting the Broncos on his back, the Aztecs would always answer. Especially within a foot of the basket as they seemed to manage easy buckets.

After a brief back-and-forth between the squads, the Broncos had a two-minute scoring drought and let the Aztecs take a 64-61, their first since the early going of the game when it was the Aztecs 5-4.

Everytime the Broncos would hit a shot, the Aztecs, to their credit, would hit a necessary shot to stay in it. The second half would get critical.

And testy.

While the Broncos did have an edge in fouls (as in, they weren’t committing all that many) they had closed that gap in the second half.

The Aztecs were able to get to within one at 81-80 with 18 seconds left in the game. On an inbound from Hobbs, the Broncos drew up a BEAUTIFUL call where Hutchison would streak down the court.

He was then intentionally fouled and shot two free throws to get the Broncos up 83-80. Those free throws would put Hutchison at 44 points, a new school record.

San Diego State would get the last two shots, both misses and the Broncos get away with the win.