For about 20 minutes Tuesday night, San Jose State (6-15, 1-9 MW) looked like it was ready to drag Boise State (13-8, 5-5 MW) into a grinder.
The Spartans traded punches, spaced the floor, and stayed afloat with timely shooting from the perimeter. But once the second-half arrived, so did the cold truth: Boise State was bigger, deeper, and far more ruthless in execution.
The Broncos’ 89–58 win at Provident Credit Union Event Center wasn’t just a blowout, it was a lesson in physicality and sustainability.
Boise State turned a three-point half-time lead into a 31-point statement by winning the second half 53–25, a stretch where the Spartans simply ran out of answers.
The first-half felt like vintage Mountain West chaos.
SJSU hit six threes before the break, shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, and trailed just 36–33 at halftime.
Jermaine Washington and Pasha Goodarzi kept the Spartans connected while Adrian Myers and Colby Garland found timely gaps. For a team ravaged by injuries and still missing Yaphet Moundi inside, it was a commendable showing of fight.
The hard flip of the switch.
The Broncos dominated the paint, outscoring SJSU 56–24 inside, and that number tells the entire story.
It wasn’t just the bigs; guards attacked downhill, finished through contact, and collapsed the Spartan defense possession after possession. Boise also won the rebounding battle 39–20 and got 41 points from its bench, suffocating any hope of a Spartan counterpunch.
Head coach Tim Miles didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
“Once we got down 14, 15 points, we quit competing,” Miles said on the early portion of the second-half. “That was the really disappointing part. They got us in the paint and that’s not only their big guys. Their guards driving on us. We got manhandled,”
It was Spartan forward Sadraque Nganga exerting some consistent level of aggression and leading SJSU with 15-points followed by Washington and Garland with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Boise’s balance was overwhelming.
Drew Fielder (16 points), Andrew Meadow (15), Bhan Buom and Peason Carmichael with 11 each, along and Aginaldo Neto (9 with five assists) consistently punished defensive lapses, while the Broncos shot nearly 59 percent from the field overall.
Back-to-back Meadow dunks midway through the second-half felt like the moment the game slipped from competitive to inevitable.
For San Jose State, this was less about early effort and more about durability late.
The Spartans have shown this season they can rally, scrap, and close gaps, but against a program like Boise State, lapses become avalanches.
This one wasn’t close by the end. But the first-half showed why these current Spartan endings continue to sting.
