Utah State could ill afford a loss in its regular-season finale Saturday night at Fresno State if the Aggies wanted to keep their hopes for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid alive.
The Bulldogs gave USU all it could handle, but the Aggies converted late to earn the hard-fought 57-51 victory at Save Mart Center. It gives Utah State four straight wins heading into next week’s Mountain West Conference tournament, where the Aggies will be the No. 2 seed.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
USU makes the plays down the stretch
The Aggies (18-7, 15-4 MWC) found themselves down 48-45 after a Fresno State 3-pointer with 4:02 to play, and over the next two-plus minutes, the only points scored came on a Neemias Queta jumper. On back-to-back possessions, though, Utah State delivered a pair of clutch 3-pointers — the first came from Alphonso Anderson with 1:34 to play to put the Aggies up 50-48.
After a Fresno State turnover, Utah State worked the shot clock down on its next possession before swinging the ball to Rollie Worster, who sank a 3 with 38 seconds to play to give the Aggies a 53-48 lead. While the Bulldogs’ Orlando Robinson followed with a 3-pointer to cut it back to one possession, Utah State wrapped up the win at the free-throw line.
Aggies rally
It didn’t look good for the Aggies early on. Utah State trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and 10 at halftime — the Aggies shot 25% in the opening 20 minutes — but Utah State scored the first eight points of the second half and eventually took the lead on a Steven Ashworth 3-pointer with 9:54 to play.
The Aggies outshot the Bulldogs (11-10, 9-11 MWC) in the second half — 53.6% to 35.7% — and Utah State made five of its six 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes to rally for the win.
USU’s front court leads the way
The Aggies were paced by a trio of front court players in the win. Justin Bean had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds to go with three steals, while Queta added 13 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots, two assists and a steal. Anderson contributed 11 points, four rebounds and an assist.
Utah State also made the most of 12 Bulldogs turnovers. The Aggies scored 20 points off those Fresno State turnovers, including 14 points on seven turnovers in the second half.