Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, fans of the Aggies saw a love triangle develop.
It was between junior guard Max Shulga, senior center Trevin Dorius and the net.
Utah State men’s basketball got back on track after two losses and saw its offense reactivated as the Aggies led from start to finish in an 80-65 win over Air Force on Tuesday night. Shulga exploded for a career-high 29 points, including 5-8 from 3-point range, and Dorius made the most of his limited time, scoring a career-high 17 points on 7-11 from the field in just 16:38 of play. Utah State gathered its 20th win of the season, marking the 32nd 20-plus win season in school history.
After failing to eclipse 61 points in the last two games and shooting a combined 40.2% from the field, the Aggies shrugged it off and hit 80 points for the 13th time this season. They have a 13-0 record in those games.
“I’m really proud of the guys and their ability to refocus after two really hard losses where it could have gone the other direction,” coach Ryan Odom said. “Our guys responded in a really positive way today and got off to a good start in the game, and it just kind of continued from there. (The Falcons) are very hard to separate from because they challenge you so much on defense and wear you down, but I thought our guys overall did a nice job tonight.”
Against a feisty Air Force defense with fast runners that swatted at the ball constantly, the Aggies struggled at times to find open looks, but Shulga was a consistent presence all game long, one that the team could rely on for the most improbable shots. The junior broke his career-high with an unassisted 3-pointer well behind the top of the key with a defender in his face.
“It’s something that we’ve always known Max is capable of, and we hope that every team in the conference knows that’s what Max is capable of,” Dorius said. “Today really shows that he has a lot of confidence. He’s probably one of the most skilled guys on the floor at any given time.”
It may just be the exceptional play of Shulga that opened the floor for Dorius to dominate the glass. The senior added to his career-high a stat line of seven rebounds, four of them offensive rebounds. Dorius scored the first point of the game for Utah State with two straight offensive boards followed by a putback layup.
“I’m getting a lot more looks cuz over the course of the season, we’ve shown that if (other teams) aren’t guarding outside, we’re just gonna make 21 3s, y’know,” Dorius said with a laugh. “As fun as it is, I think all that credit goes to our guards and the work they’ve put in throughout the season.”
Odom credited tough defense by junior guard Steven Ashworth for keeping Air Force guard Jake Heidbreder, the Falcon’s leading scorer, from getting into a rhythm. Heidbreder, who averages 14.4 points per game, had just 6 points at the half, and he only surpassed his scoring average with back-to-back triples in the final minutes of an already-decided game.
Dorius, who averages just over 13 minutes on the court per game, was part of a clear intention by Odom to get more playing time out of the bench (Dorius is technically the starter but plays roughly 14 minutes per game fewer than his backup, senior Dan Akin). Senior guard RJ Eytle-Rock outdid his average playing time by a full eight minutes as well, and when asked about the bench coming in more, Odom straitly said, “We have to,” and referenced back to Utah State’s loss of starting senior guard Rylan Jones. Jones is not officially out for the season, but it’s widely expected he will not return.
“You can see the guys are getting worn down having to play that many minutes,” Odom said. “RJ’s a veteran and started every game last year. RJ knows how to play this (Air Force) offense because he did it three times last year.”
The Aggies moved to 8-5 in the Mountain West with a 20-7 overall record. They’ll stay at home this weekend and look for revenge against Nevada. During the halftime against Nevada, Utah State will host a ceremony to retire the jersey of former Aggie legend Jaycee Carroll, who holds numerous records with the Aggies and was the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2008.