Even before the final buzzer sounded, the Utah State Aggies began their celebration. They were hugging and mugging and high-fiving right there on the floor of the Huntsman Center while the University of Utah's late, great Runnin' Utes stood by in a daze. The unthinkable was happening. After 11 lead changes, 14 ties and one overtime, Utah State was headed for a 74-72 victory over 10th-ranked, unbeaten Utah.
"We beat 'em!" the Aggies were saying Tuesday night, as if they had just walked on water. "We beat 'em!"The celebration resumed in a mob scene at center court after the game ended and then moved into the locker room, where for several minutes the Aggies huddled in the center of the room and danced, chanted, shouted, joked and generally carried on.
"We're just getting crazy," said forward Kendall Youngblood. "This is a big win."
Outside the locker room, USU coach Kohn Smith was saying much the same thing. "I'd have to say this is my biggest win," he said.
For a man who has yet to produce a winning season in his previous three years at USU, that was understatement. The Utes had won 20 consecutive games at home; indeed, they had lost only once in two years in the Huntsman Center with Coach Rick Majerus on the sidelines.
Only one week earlier, Utah had defeated USU 71-62 in Logan. If nothing else, the Aggies' confidence rose after that game. They had led late in the second half, but folded down the stretch.
"We hung with them in Logan," said USU forward Roger Daley. "We just had to finish it."
And this time they did, but only after both teams had raised the art of choking to its medical limits. The Utes and Aggies missed four foul shots each in the final nine minutes of regulation, and totaled three more in overtime. With five minutes to play, the Utes owned a five-point lead, but then guard Jay Goodman buried a three-point shot and center Carlito DaSilva made - we kid you not - a bank shot from the top of the key, 18 feet out. Anyway it came to this: Youngblood - 1 for 9 at the time - made a trey with 2:09 remaining to tie the game at 62, and from there they were lucky just to draw iron.
Josh Grant missed a wide open three-pointer, Malloy Nesmith hit the side of the backboard with a shot from the baseline, Phil Dixon missed a wide open trey with 13 seconds left and Goodman launched an airball. It was about this time that someone suggested they stop the game and perform a group Heimlich. Even the referees were in trouble. They swallowed their whistles on an obvious goaltending violation by Nathan Wickizer.
Is there a doctor in the house? "We missed easy shots," said Majerus. "I like the shots we took. We just didn't make them."
The Utes were leading 68-66 with two minutes left in overtime when the Aggies made the game's decisive move. Youngblood made a pair of free throws and Todd Gentry hit a four-foot angle shot following a Ute turnover to make it 70-68. Moments later Daley drew Grant outside and then blew past him. He caught a pass from Gary Patterson and stuffed it coming through the backdoor to give USU a 72-69 with 25 seconds left. After Grant missed a trey attempt, Gentry sealed the win with a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds remaining.
"It was a case where we got some breaks going our way, and we made the shots in the end," said Smith.
The Aggies, 2-2, are a promising team. They have been working several new players into their rotation, and they should only improve.
"This is just a start!" the Aggies were telling each other after the game.
Last season, the Utes probably would have won Tuesday's game. While marching to a 30-4 record, they won more than half of their games with a steady hand during crunchtime. You figured that when they took a 58-51 lead with less than five minutes remaining against USU Tuesday, they were a good bet to win. But this is not the Utes of a year ago, even if all but one of their leading players is back in uniform. Grant and Craig Rydalch, Utah's senior co-captains, are still recovering from off-season surgery, and it showed Tuesday.
Rydalch lasted six minutes on his bad ankle; he missed his only field goal attempt - he's 0 for 13 this season - and both of his foul shots. Then there was Grant, who, after just one week of practice, was playing in his third game of the season, sore knee and all. He made 3 of 13 shots, totaled 8 points and 7 rebounds and never scored after the first half.
Grant, last year's Most Valuable Player in the Western Athletic Conference, missed crucial shots at the end of regulation and two more in overtime, but no one had to tell him about it. Long after most of his teammates had left the locker room, Grant was still sitting in front of his locker, staring at the floor.
"It's one thing to lose; it's another to play badly and lose," he said. "I made too many (mistakes) to name. I'm ready. I just didn't play."
Majerus, who has considered redshirting Grant, was more sympathetic. "I've tried to tell you, he's one-fifth of the player he was last year," said the coach. "This isn't Josh Grant. Craig Rydalch isn't Craig Rydalch. Josh's first practice was seven days ago. Of the 13 shots he took, I think only two were contested. I probably played him too much tonight, but if he's going to play he's got to catch up. He's seven weeks behind."
It is for all of the above reasons that Majerus has been deriding Utah's Top 10 ranking. "We're not even a Top 50 team," he said. "We don't have two bullets in the gun."
To be sure, Grant and Rydalch weren't the only bullets missing in Utah's arsenal Tuesday, but much of that was due to the many curious matchups that this game created. Paul Afeaki, out of San Francisco via Tonga, went head to head with Carlito DaSilva, a 255-pound Brazilian by way of College of Southern Idaho, in the great Southern Hemispheric Shootout. Afeaki made 2 of 8 shots and totaled 9 points and 12 rebounds; DaSilva made 4 of 12 shots, and totaled 12 points and 11 boards. In the muscle beach classification, Byron Wilson and Youngblood stood broad shoulder to broad shoulder much of the night and flexed each other out of the gym. Wilson was oh-for-9; Youngblood finished with 13 points, but made just 2 of 10 shots from the field.
So it was left to the little guys - 5-foot-7 Jimmy Soto and the 5-foot-10 Nesmith, who clawed and jawed at each other most of the night. Soto finished with a career-high 25 points, many of them after eluding his rival on flying drives to the basket. Nesmith had 13 points and 6 assists.
It was not a night for offense. The defenses ruled. Utah shot 30 percent, USU 44 percent. They missed a combined 21 free throws.
"We're going to face this all year," said Ute forward M'Kay McGrath as he left the locker room. "Teams are going to get pumped up to play us. We better get used to it."