Nathan Mensah had 17 points and six rebounds for the No. 22 San Diego State men’s basketball team in a 72-52 win against visiting Boise State in a Mountain West Conference game on Friday night.
Keshad Johnson scored 10 points and Adam Seiko and Jaedon LeDee contributed nine points apiece off the bench for San Diego State (18-5, 9-2 MWC), which reclaimed sole possession of first place in the conference standings.
Max Rice scored 16 points and was the only player in double figures for Boise State (18-6, 8-3), which went 3-0 against the Aztecs last season.
Mensah, who came in averaging 6.5 points, scored 12 in the first half to help San Diego State to a 43-21 lead.
The Aztecs used a 14-0 run to sprint to a 29-10 lead with 5:49 left in the first half. Boise State missed 15 of its first 20 shots at that point.
Boise State was without starting point guard Marcus Shaver Jr., who was injured with 2:41 remaining in a win against Air Force on Tuesday. Shaver is third on the team at 13.2 points a game.
Making things more difficult for the Broncos in the first half, Tyson Degenhart, their leading scorer at 14.4 points, went to the bench with his third foul with 7:50 remaining in the opening half. Degenhart finished with nine points.
The Broncos were down 16 points with a minute left in the first half, but San Diego State scored the final six points to take a 22-point lead into the break.
Mensah and Johnson combined to go 6-for-6 from the floor in the opening half and scored 16 points, while Matt Bradley and Darrion Trammell, the two leading scorers on the season for the Aztecs, went scoreless.
Boise State shot 33.3 percent from the floor in the first half and missed all seven of its 3-point attempts.
The Broncos missed their first nine 3-point attempts overall before Pavle Kuzmanovic made one from the baseline to cut the deficit to 48-28 with 15:35 left.
–Field Level Media
