Niners (2-0) vs Boise State (1-1) in a first time meeting in the opening round of the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Thursday @ 7 PM at the HTC Center in Conway, SC. Game will be broadcast on ESPNews.
After dropping its season opener at home against South Dakota State, Boise State rebounded to knock off Washington State, 71-61, at home on Saturday night.
Through two games BSU has been led in scoring by redshirt senior guard, Max Rice. Rice is averaging 18.0 points per game and despite the loss, poured in 21 points and nabbed five steals on the defensive end against SDSU. On Saturday against Wazzu, Rice dropped in 15 points and pulled in eight boards to lead the Broncos to a bounce-back victory at home.
On the bench, the Broncos are led by the programs all-time winningest head coach, Leon Rice. Rice has led BSU to nine 20-win seasons, including a program-best 27 victories last year as the Broncos claimed both the Mountain West regular season and tournament titles last season.
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Thursday’s tilt between the Broncos and 49ers will be the first-ever meeting between the programs on the collegiate hardwood and mark the opening game at the 2022 Myrtle Beach Invitational for both teams.
A victory in Thursday’s quarterfinal would get the Niners off to a second consecutive, 3-0, start. The last time CLT started consecutive seasons, 3-0, came in 1994-95 and 1995-96. The 1994-95 squad won the Metro Conference Regular Season and earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Charlotte will be looking for its first victory in an in-season tournament under current Head Coach Ron Sanchez. In 2018-19, the Niners went 0-3 at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, before dropping both contests at the Nassau Championship in the Bahamas last season.
The Myrtle Beach Invitational field features a trio of 2022 NCAA tournament teams in Boise State, Murray State and Loyola (Chicago), along with a pair of major conference foes who competed in the NIT last season in No. 24 Texas A&M and Colorado.
Fresh off a dominant, 80-47 victory against Maryland Eastern Shore on Monday night, CLT upped its winning streak to four in non-conference games, dating to Dec. 20 of last season. Over that stretch Charlotte won all four at home and took down UMES twice, and Western Carolina and Coppin State.
A win would give CLT its first victory in an early-season tournament since it captured the title at the 2013 Puerto Rico Tipoff. That Niners team took down Kansas State, Northeastern and Michigan en route to a trophy before the season reached the month of December.
Boise State and San Diego State will face each twice in February in conference play. Broncos were 3-0 vs Aztecs last year, sweeping the regular season series and then claiming the MW title in the championship game.
Boise State isn’t the team that won the MW last season - lost 3 starters who accounted for 35 ppg. Still a well coached team with some nice players - led by the coach’s son Max Rice (18 ppg) - but shoots poorly from the 3 (23%) and a mediocre 68% on FTs. I’m expecting a competitive game.
