Courtesy of Braidon Nourse

No matter the percentage, No. 5 Boise State let it fly. On a school-record 40 3-point attempts, the Broncos hit 11 in a 62-52 win over No. 4 San Diego State.

The two biggest came from two of the Broncos’ biggest stars in Tyson Degenhart and Alvaro Cardenas with around five minutes remaining in the game. They came on back-to-back attempts and broke a 49-49 deadlock that the teams found themselves in following a streaky start to the period.

Broncos coach Leon Rice gave the team a pretty simple game plan: take a lot of 3s and get rebounds. And it made sense — the Aztecs are one of the best in the country when it comes to post defense and blocking shots. The Broncos were able to find open shots early in the shot clock and were encouraged to take them.

“We’re one of the best two-point field goal teams. So, our style did not match up with their style defensively, so we had to adjust, and we had to make that work,” Rice said. “I think our target was between 36 and 50 threes, is what we said, because that’s what we were going to make happen.”

The Broncos came out firing early and often, attempting their first 11 shots from beyond the arc.

The other part of the gameplan was chasing the boards instead of going straight back on defense, which the Broncos also did well. On the night, Boise State brought down 13 offensive rebounds (40 total) and got 18 second-chance points from them. The Aztecs only managed four offensive rebounds (28 total).

The Broncos are now 13-0 this season when outrebounding opponents by 10 or more.

“It was just one of our things that with these battles against San Diego State, if you’re able to win the rebounding margin by that much, you’re normally going to put yourself in a great spot to win,” Degenhart said. “Our effort was tremendous on the glass, especially down in the second half. Only allowing that team to have four offensive rebounds is pretty remarkable.”

Along with the two big 3s late in the second half, the Broncos held San Diego State to zero field goals in the final nine minutes. Some free throws, but that’s about it.

Some shots just didn’t fall, but Boise State most often made the Aztecs uncomfortable in transition and in setting up their offense. Deeper in the shot clock, the Broncos found timely steals and blocks to stymie inside looks.

“It was a heck of an effort by our team. It was a great game plan by our coaches,” Degenhart said. “I think all of us felt very, very prepared with what they were going to run, and whenever something was called, we had an idea of what it was going to be, and we just did a great job of just flying around. Especially in the late second half, just flying around to loose balls and just getting our hands on a lot of them. Very, very proud of this group and our effort.”

The Broncos will face the top-seeded New Mexico Lobos on Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network.