Madden Goes for 3, Gets 2 and Still Gives USD a 54-52 Victory

University of San Diego forward Nils Madden always wanted to sink a three-point shot during a game. He had done it plenty of times in practice, and Thursday night against Boise State, Madden thought he had done it in a game.

But, no, he was just inside the line marking the three-point territory.

Still, Madden wasn’t upset. The shot he sank at the buzzer was good enough to give USD a 54-52 victory over Boise State in the Toreros’ home opener in front of 2,010 in the USD Sports Center.

Maybe the last-minute excitement USD provided when it allowed the Broncos to score 15 unanswered points in the final seven minutes to tie the score at 52 was a ploy to assure season-ticket holders.

More likely, according to Coach Hank Egan, the Toreros were overwhelmed late in the second half.

“You outplayed us,” Egan told Boise State Coach Bobby Dye after the game.

“Yeah, but you won,” Dye replied.

USD is 2-0. Boise State is 2-1.

With three seconds remaining in the game, Danny Means inbounded to Madden near the top of the key. Madden turned and sank the shot with no time left.

USD’s previous basket had come nearly seven minutes earlier, when Steve Krallman drove inside for a layup.

Boise State, trailing 52-37, called a timeout with 6:57 remaining, and then ran off 15 straight points to tie the game, 52-52, with five seconds left in the game.

“I thought we played well the first 13 minutes of the (second half),” Egan said. “The last seven minutes of the ballgame, we just quit playing. We were lucky, but that doesn’t hurt.”

In the timeout before the winning shot, Egan said he had planned to get the ball to Madden.

“We wanted to prevent (USD) from dunking for an easy basket and we didn’t want to foul them,” Dye said of his team’s strategy on the final play.

Dye’s teams are famous for last-minute rallies. During the NCAA Western Regionals in 1978, Dye’s team at Cal State Fullerton won its first two games of the tournament with come-from-behind victories.

Fullerton was eliminated, however, by a shot at the buzzer by Arkansas. In the Arkansas game, Fullerton scored 18 straight points late in the game to tie Arkansas.

“The most important thing is to not lose your poise out there,” Dye said. “You have to keep doing what you set out to do.”

Boise State had kept pace with the Toreros until late in the first half when USD scored 10 consecutive points to take a 28-19 lead with two minutes left. USD led 30-23 at the half.

USD tried to quicken the pace of the game early in the second half, but seemed to get ahead of itself as it made several errant passes and shot poorly from the field.

The Toreros regained control of the game midway through the second half behind Marty Munn’s back-to-back three pointers, which gave produced a 46-30 lead with 12 minutes remaining.

But USD lost its momentum and Boise State trimmed the Toreros lead to 48-36 with nine minutes to play.

“Toward the end of the game, they stayed aggressive,” Madden said. “We were aggressive at times, but couldn’t keep it up. If we could have remained aggressive (the game) would not have been as close.

“It was a letdown when they came back; we were lucky to win.”

Dye said he was pleased that his defense controlled USD’s 7-foot center Scott Thompson. Against the University of Utah last week, Thompson scored 31 points. Thursday night, he was held to 17 points.

Boise State’s Chris Childs led all scorers with 19 points.