Boise State cruises past Northwestern State, ties program’s longest home winning streak

Back-to-back 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances have meant the Boise State men’s basketball team has piled up a lot of victories.

And many of those have come at home, inside the friendly confines of ExtraMile Arena.

On Tuesday night, Tyson Degenhart scored a season-high 20 points, Chibuzo Agbo got hot from 3-point range for the third game in a row and the Broncos hammered Northwestern State 95-54 to get their 19th straight win at ExtraMile, dating back to a win over Utah Valley on Nov. 27, 2022. That tied the Broncos’ longest home winning streak in program history, which was set from March 2, 1997, to Jan. 17, 1999.

The team has a chance to break the record Sunday against visiting Cal State Fullerton. Tipoff is 2 p.m.

“I love those milestones,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice. “Those are hard to accomplish when you think about all the hard games you have to win. We have a tough one on Sunday and we’re going to need a huge crowd to come and support us if we want to break it.”

Agbo finished the game with 17 points and went 5-for-12 from 3-point range. He went 6-for-9 from the perimeter in a win over Western Oregon on Saturday and 6-for-9 in the Broncos’ win over North Texas on Dec. 5.

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Max Rice and Roddie Anderson III both finished with 12 points on Tuesday. St. John’s transfer O’Mar Stanley added seven points, and he and Degenhart led the Broncos on the glass with seven rebounds apiece.

The Broncos (7-3) dominated just about every statistical category against outmanned Northwestern State (1-9), whose only win this season came in the season opener against Dallas Christian College. They outrebounded the Demons 44-23, outscored them 20-4 in the paint and got 27 points off the bench. Boise State also racked up 19 assists.

“We were just playing very unselfish,” the Broncos’ Cam Martin said after the game. “That was a big emphasis. We talked about that during our road trip to Orlando. We weren’t getting many assists and we were getting outrebounded. That’s a disaster right there.”

Northwestern State hung around early, trailing by just four points with a little more than 8 minutes to play in the first half. The Broncos pulled away with a 15-5 run and led 45-30 at halftime. Boise State then led by more than 20 points for most of the second half and sealed its fourth straight win with an 11-0 run.

Cliff Davis led Northwestern State with 21 points and went 7-for-12 from 3-point range.