Getty Image / Sam Wasson
Last night’s basketball game between Boise State and New Mexico carried some big implications with it.
Both teams are fighting for seeding in both the Mountain West Tournament and NCAA Tournament.
There also may have been some unresolved tension from an incident during their first meeting involving UNM’s baseball team.
It also had big implications for some bettors.
Boise State entered the game as a 5.5 point favorite and appeared to be on their way to a cover late in the game. Unfortunately, things played out perfectly for UNM to get the backdoor cover.
Boise State missed 7 free throws in the final minute of the game, but was still covering by 2.5 points as New Mexico got the ball for their last possession. Despite the Lobos almost losing the ball, they were able to get the ball to Donovan Dent who knocked down a 3 with 1.6 seconds left in the game for the cover.
New nominee for Bad Beat of the Year in CBB 🤢
Boise State (-5.5) misses SEVEN FREE THROWS in the final minute of the game. New Mexico chucks one up at the horn to cover…
I. AM. SICK. pic.twitter.com/tuXnONxTAx
— br_betting (@br_betting) February 23, 2023
Anybody who bet Boise State on the spread last night couldn’t have felt great for most of the game. The Broncos’ largest lead in the first half was 5 and that lead disappeared quickly in the middle of the half when New Mexico got hot and went on a run. The Lobos even managed to stretch their lead as far as 13.
Boise State wasn’t actually covering at any point in this game until there were less than 5 minutes left. However, the Broncos had completely taken over at that point in the game and managed get their lead as high as 10 points with under 2 minutes left.
With the Lobos fouling late and Boise State knocking down around 74$ of their free throws on the year, you would expect that cover to be pretty safe.
To make this beat just a bit worse for Boise State bettors, they should have covered despite their team being ice cold from 3. The team made just 25.9% of their 3-point attempts in the game after knocking down our 36% for the rest of the season.
That included an 0-8 night from for Tyson Degenhart, who is the team’s leading scorer and was knocking down more than 35% of his looks from 3 entering the game.
This one is going to sting for a little while for anybody who put their faith in Boise State in this one.