It was one of the biggest shots of Ian Martinez’s career, and it couldn’t have taken any longer to fall through the cylinder.
“It felt like forever,” Martinez said of his 3-pointer with seven seconds left in No. 25 Utah State’s stunning, 81-79 comeback victory against Boise State Saturday night at the Spectrum.
“I was just there on the ground watching it, hoping it went in. It bounced about five times on the rim. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe it.”
Watching from the bench, Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun felt the same way as the Aggies (16-1 overall, 6-0 in the Mountain West) miraculously rallied back from 13 points down in the second half to win their sixth straight game.
“It seemed like the shot was never going to stop bouncing,” Calhoun said while shaking his head, “but he had a great look. He leaned into it a little bit, and that’s what the magic is all about here in Logan.”
Trailing 79-77 after calling a timeout with just over nine seconds remaining, Calhoun said, “We’re always going for the win. We’re never playing for overtime. I think a couple of kids on the bench thought that we’d run something to get at the rim, but I’ve never been that kind of coach. I want to go for it.”
As the ball was being inbounded by Drake Allen near the Utah State bench, the play Calhoun called required a hard screen from Karson Templin, and the sophomore forward delivered, leaving Martinez open at the top of the key with Boise State forward Tyson Degenhart bearing down on him.
Degenhart clipped Martinez and was whistled for a foul as Martinez hit the floor.
Martinez was on the ground, lying on his left shoulder, as the basketball spun around the left side of the rim, went off the backboard and bounced around a couple more times before finally falling slipping through the basket.
The sellout crowd of 10,270 — the majority of whom actually had enough time to think Martinez would be going to the line for three shots — erupted as the shot somehow went down, setting USU’s best free-throw shooter up for a chance at a four-point play.
Martinez calmly knocked down his free throw attempt, leaving Utah State with a two-point lead. Like Calhoun, Boise State went for the win, but senior guard Alvaro Cardenas’ 3-point attempt just before the final buzzer was off the mark.
“I want to forget what I was thinking in that moment because it wasn’t good,” Martinez said of Cardenas’ final shot.
It was a rare miss from 3-point range for the Broncos (12-5, 4-2), who took a 38-34 lead into halftime on the strength of a 9-for-15 performance from beyond the arc in the first half.
For the game, Boise State went 14 for 26 from 3-point range, the most treys and the highest 3-point percentage (53.8%) that BSU head coach Leon Rice’s team has had this season.
“I thought Leon had his team has prepared as anybody we’ve played all year,” Calhoun said of the Broncos. “They attacked our zone and had nine 3s at halftime. It was incredible. I mean, his kids were ready to go.”
Degenhart, who knocked down his first three 3-point attempts, ended up leading all scorers with 22 points for the Broncos on the strength of five treys.
Cardenas added 15 points for the Broncos, while sophomore forward Andrew Meadow added 12.
Martinez (18 points, five 3-pointers) led Utah State in scoring, with graduate guards Deyton Albury (14 points), Allen (13 points) and Dexter Akanno (12 points) also finishing in double figures.
Sophomore guard Mason Falslev finished with 10 points despite going just 1 for 7 from the free-throw line and suffering from the “yips,” according to Calhoun.
“Everybody’s going to talk about Ian’s shot, but there was also the pass by Drake, and the screen by KT, right?” Calhoun noted. “Deyton Albury had big minutes, Dexter Akanno had big minutes, and Mason. There were multiple guys.
“This is a team in every sense of the word, and it’s fun to be a part of, and you know, we’re going to go look back on this as one of the those really, really big moments inside the Spectrum.”
Utah State was outrebounded by a 30-24 margin for the game, but after shooting a solid 48.3% in the first half, the home team exploded to go 16 for 20 (80%) front the floor in the second half, including 7 for 8 from 3-point range.
“We did a great job attacking that zone, and they did a great job of attacking us,” Rice said. “Our defense had to be better, and if it was a little bit better, we probably get out of here with a win. They shot 80 percent in the second half; no matter what defense we tried, they solved it.”
Boise State, which never trailed by more than four points in the first half, came out of halftime ready to go, putting together a 9-0 run that forced Calhoun to call a timeout with his team trailing 47-34 with 17:47 remaining in the game.
While the Aggies didn’t come roaring back after the timeout, the move did stop the bleeding and the home team managed to chip away at the Broncos’ advantage.
“I think we’re kind of tired; we’ve kind of been all over the country,” Calhoun said, “and sometimes you have to be careful that you don’t lose your team. This is an emotional game, and I knew that it was going to come down to the last three or four minutes so I wanted to make sure that I said something that was direct, but not over the top. You can really kill guys’ confidence.
“But we just had to buckle down and make better decisions with the ball and better decisions on defense, but everybody was really positive in the huddle. They really were.”
Buoyed by the largest crowd of the year, the Aggies ended up getting back to within three points of the Broncos at 57-54 with just about 11 minutes left.
Boise State, which had already dropped its previous four games to the Aggies, knew what was coming — especially with former USU head coach Tim Duryea on Rice’s staff — and the battle was on the remainder of the game.
Utah State took its first lead of the second half on a slam dunk by Templin with 6:39 left, and the Aggies built a 71-68 advantage with just over five minutes to go when Martinez buried a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired.
But thanks in part to some poor free-throw shooting by Utah State — the Aggies finished the game just 10 for 22 from the line — the Broncos recovered and put together an 11-6 spurt down the stretch.
It was a 3-pointer from Cardenas, who transferred from San Jose State in the offseason, that left the Broncos up 79-77 with just under 12 seconds to go.
Rather than have his team attack the basket like it did at the end of its road win at San Diego State, Calhoun elected to call a timeout to set up a play, which ended up being another right decision by the first-year Aggie coach.
“We just made one more play than them,” Calhoun said. “It was just a great, great atmosphere.”
The Aggies played without the services of junior forward Isaac Johnson, whom Calhoun said was sick and wasn’t even on the bench Saturday night.
Utah State returns to action Wednesday night at UNLV (9-6, 3-1), then the Aggies will have a week off before hosting Nevada (8-7, 0-4) on Jan. 22.