About four minutes into the basketball game, during a Utah State timeout, Santa Claus fell on his face from 10 feet up when two cheerleaders failed to catch him as he completed one of those Bud Light Daredevil-type stunt dunks Saturday night in the Spectrum.
Santa was just taking his cue from the Aggie starting five, who'd done a face-plant of their own.The timeout was called by USU coach Kohn Smith so he could substitute a whole new five, after the starters fell behind NAIA BYU-Hawaii 7-5 on a Todd Crow jam, then threw the ball away for the second straight time downcourt.
"I tried to prepare them for a good team," pleaded Smith. The Seasiders almost beat Ball State and did dump Idaho State in OT their last two games.
"It's Christmas, but, good night!" Smith muttered.
The new five got it back to 11-11, and, with Kendall Youngblood returning, got up 15-11.
But the Aggies had the same problems as the last two NCAA Division I schools that played the Seasiders: They couldn't put away this scrappy bunch of Utah exiles, a Brazilian and a Nigerian.
It took a 12-point splurge from Carlito DaSilva, one of the disgraced starters, in the final 51/2 minutes - he scored 12 of the Aggies' last 16 points - to finally give Utah State a winning record, 4-3, and a hard-earned 78-74 win over the Seasiders.
"We got the game in control several times, and then it seemed like they'd knock in some 3-pointers," said Smith. "They're a hard team to shake."
"I was not ready to play," admitted DaSilva, who'd scored 33 points and had 16 rebounds in his last game. "I guess a couple of us were not ready to play."
The one Aggie with a consistently good game was 7-foot Nate Wickizer, one of the second five, who pulled in three rebounds and scored a free throw in between 5-7 and 15-11 and kept going for a 14-point, 14-rebound night with 5-for-6 shooting and four shot blocks, all career highs for the freshman.
Wickizer kept the Aggies in it down the stretch until DaSilva was ready, breaking a 52-52 tie with two free throws, earned on a rebound, rebounding two more, getting a basket on goaltending, blocking a shot and adding another rebound between DaSilva's first two field goals of the game, at 5:38 and 5:03 of the second half.
Wickizer's secrets were a heart-to-heart talk during the week with Smith ("I was having a hard time," he said) and an adjustment in his defensive spacing that, for the first time, kept him out of foul trouble.
"We were working on him to gap his man and not chest into him," said Smith.
"I stayed back a little more and wasn't as anxious," said Wickizer.
DaSilva's late motivation came from those watching him. He had a friend in from College of Southern Idaho, and the Seasiders had fellow Brazilian Antonio Valiengo, who was the game's leading scorer with 21. "I was worried about what they would say," said DaSilva.
Likely, Valiengo is more apt to tell those back home about the snow and cold, which he said he'd never seen until the last few days, and about the unusual-for-college 10-day Seasider road trip. "I was tired. Everyone was tired," he said.
BYU-H plays an unorthodox style, spreading the floor into an almost four-corners offense but taking shots rapidly and off-balance. They made only 41 percent; USU was little better at 45.
"They're good shooters, and sometimes what you think is a bad shot ends up being a 3-pointer," said Smith.
Wickizer said he was surprised the Seasiders didn't seem as big as their program heights (two 6-9s, two 6-8s). No doubt the height disadvantage and road trip were telling factors.
That's why the Seasiders shoot so many threes (7-for-18). They were outrebounded 46-37.
USU twice led by 10, at 21-11 and 23-13, but it was 34-31 at the half. USU got up by nine on two Jay Goodman 3-pointers by 18:26 of the second half, but Valiengo, Crow (of Salt Lake City and Snow College) and Alan Frampton (of Provo) quickly cut it to three. The Ags got up by seven again, then by five three different times at the half's midpoint, but BYU-H had leads of 60-59 and 68-67 before DaSilva and Youngblood (four of his 17 in the last 3:29) finally pulled it out.