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By Brian Murphy
bmurphy@idahostatesman.com

Sophomore guard Anthony Drmic's only 3-pointer of the game gave Boise State a lead it would not relinquish and the Broncos held off Louisiana 63-57 in a back-and-forth game at Taco Bell Arena on Sunday.

Drmic's 3-pointer with 7 minutes, 28 seconds left in the second half gave Boise State a 53-52 lead. The Broncos scored the next six points to push their advantage to 59-52. The game featured eight ties and eight lead changes.

"I'm proud of the fact that we found a way. It wasn't pretty," said coach Leon Rice, whose team improved to 3-0. "The only thing I really felt good about was finishing the game. We got it done. But there's a lot to learn from how we got it done."

Boise State shot 38.9 percent from the floor and made jsut 4-of-20 3-point tries. Drmic was 1-for-5 and junior Jeff Elorriage was 1-for-6.

But they found other ways to contribute. Elorriaga pulled down a career high 10 rebounds and had three steals. Drmic had eight boards as Boise State outrebounded Louisiana 41-29.

Derrick Marks led the Broncos with 14 points despite foul trouble. Reserve freshman guard Mikey Thompson had a career-high 13 in 26 minutes.

"Mikey's got a lot of talent. Sometimes he makes some crazy plays that look like a freshman and other times he makes really nice plays," Rice said. "We think Mikey is going to be a great player. These situations, he looks at it, he learns from it and he'll continue to grow as a player because he is in these situations."

Boise State (3-0) faces its biggest test of the early season Tuesday night at Michigan State.

Elfrid Payton and Alan-Michael Thompson each had 12 points for Louisiana (1-2).