It was Blackout Night at the Spectrum on Friday, but the 22nd-ranked Utah State Aggies ended up wearing a lot of red during their 72-60 win over Air Force.
In addition to several bloody noses, Utah State forward Great Osobor had to get stitches during the game after suffering a deep cut near his right eyebrow in the second half, and USU head coach Danny Sprinkle even got into the act, showing up at the postgame press conference with a bloody cut on his right index finger.
Although it turns out that injury was self-inflicted.
“I’ll probably have to reimburse the school for a new clipboard,” Sprinkle cracked. “It wasn’t one of my finer moments, but I had to get my point across.”
Utah State (24-5, 12-4), which cruised to an 88-60 victory at Colorado Springs on Jan. 2, wasn’t able to pull away from the Falcons (9-19, 2-14) in the second half this time.
The halftime score on Friday was 43-30 — nearly identical to the 42-29 tally at intermission in the first meeting — but this time around Air Force battled back to within as few as seven points before a 20-8 run by the Aggies gave the home team some breathing room.
“They’re a really disciplined team, so we knew it was going to be a fight,” USU guard Ian Martinez said of the Falcons. “You can’t ever take it easy on anyone in the Mountain West, so it was kind of expected, to be honest.”
Martinez sparked the Aggies with 14 points in the first half and ended up scoring a game-high 21 on 7 of 10 shooting. It was a welcome return to form for the senior from Costa Rica, who was just 1 for 5 with six points in USU’s 77-73 overtime win at Fresno State on Tuesday.
“He was aggressive early, and I kind of knew he was going to play tonight. It was just a matter of time,” Sprinkle said of Martinez. “He was disappointed with how he played at Fresno, and when he came out aggressive and got that first 3 to fall, that really got him going.”
Martinez was one of the Aggies who came away bloody from the game, which didn’t start until 9 p.m. in order to accommodate a national television audience.
Air Force guard Kellan Boylan went into Martinez’s face hard twice while trying to create space in the paint with about two minutes left in the game.
“He head butted me; that was crazy,” said Martinez, who had to leave the contest with a bloody nose. “I thought it was an offensive foul, but ....”
It was Osobor who suffered the worst injury of the night with 15:47 left in the second half. He was trying to maneuver in the lane when he was hit from behind by a Falcon and appeared to hit another player’s knee with his face, right above his right eye.
Utah State’s leading scorer laid flat on Stew Morrill Court for a few long moments before finally rolling over so a trainer could cover his head with a towel.
“I didn’t see exactly what happened,” Sprinkle said of the play. “And when I saw him laying there, I thought he was just being overly dramatic for a second, but then I saw some blood, and I thought, ‘OK, we better check on him,’ and it was a pretty big gash. They put some stitches in him, and we still had to take him out a couple of times when it kept bleeding.”
Osobor returned just under eight minutes of game time later to a chorus of cheers from the crowd of 9,194, but the junior ended up scoring just six points on 2 of 6 shooting — far below the career-best, 32-point performance he had in the game at Air Force.
“They did a good job on him,” Sprinkle said of Osobor, who shot just three free throws in 28 minutes Friday after shooting 16 in Colorado Springs. “Plus, he didn’t seem to have quite the same mojo that he’s had. He wasn’t posting as hard tonight and getting guys on his back.”
Martinez helped pick up the offensive slack, while the Aggies also got 11 points from junior guard Josh Uduje and 10 each from guards Darius Brown II and Mason Falslev.
Sprinkle was also pleased with the performances of sophomore guard Javon Jackson, who came off to bench to add nine points, and sophomore center Isaac Johnson.
Johnson, the 7-footer from American Fork, didn’t start for the second straight game but pulled down three quick and very vital rebounds when Osobor was being attended to in the second half.
“I give those guys a lot of credit,” Sprinkle said. “They came in, and they were ready for the moment.”
Utah State, which led 16-8 to start the game and pulled away by as many as 15 points in the first half, shot 53.2% for the game despite going just 3 of 14 from 3-point range.
The Aggies also racked up 11 steals — seven of them in the first half — and outrebounded the Falcons 33 to 22.
Air Force, which is now 0-15 all-time in the Spectrum, has now lost nine of its last 10 games, with the lone win being a stunning, 78-77 win at New Mexico on Feb. 24.
Junior guard Ethan Taylor led the Falcons with 15 points, while sophomore forward Rytis Petraitis finished with 14. Air Force shot 47.2% for the game, including 6 of 21 from beyond the arc.
“They’re a tremendous shooting team, one of the best in the league, so that was one of our keys coming in, was really guarding the 3-point line,” Sprinkle said. “We knew that in their wins, they hit double figures in 3s.”
The win leaves the Aggies in first place in the Mountain West, at least temporarily ahead of Boise State (20-8, 11-4). The Broncos host New Mexico (21-7, 9-6) on Saturday.