Utah State came into Wednesday night’s game against UNLV looking to avenge its only Mountain West loss of the season, suffered two weeks ago in Las Vegas.
But in order to accommodate a national television broadcast, the contest started an hour later than most games at the Spectrum, allowing the Rebels to operate on their customary Pacific time despite being on the road in the Mountain time zone.
And that might have been why USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun thought his team looked more ready to go to bed than to battle the Rebels in the second half.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who are tired,” Calhoun said of the Aggies, who, nonetheless, pulled out a 76-71 victory on their home floor. “And it’s not just our team, when I watch college basketball in general right now, it’s pretty ugly. So, there’s going to be nights when you’ve got to win ugly, and tonight was one of those nights.”
“... They were better than us a couple of weeks ago, and then we were just a few possessions better tonight.”
The win pulled Utah State (19-2 overall, 9-1) even with New Mexico (17-4, 9-1) at the top of the Mountain West Conference standings heading into Saturday night’s showdown against the Lobos at the Spectrum.
But Calhoun, while acknowledging that his team is tied with Auburn for the most victories in the country, wasn’t ready to move on to New Mexico just yet.
“I’m sitting in here mad — and that’s crazy — but I think that’s how I’ve been able to survive,” Calhoun said. “You can never be comfortable in this business, and you can never be comfortable as a team. You’re two bad weeks away from being eliminated, so you have to be on edge.”
Early on, the Aggies appeared ready to keep Calhoun and the crowd of 9,740 fans at the Spectrum off the edge. The home team, which had racked up 32 3-pointers in its previous two games, started off by burying six of its first 10 3-point attempts on its way to building a 23-7 advantage.
But Utah State only connected on three of its next 15 shots from beyond the arc, allowing UNLV (11-10, 5-5) to get back in the game. The Rebels trailed 33-24 at halftime, but rallied behind sophomore guard Dedan Thomas Jr., who finished with a game-high 22 points, to tie the game at 56-56 with 5:50 remaining.
It was far from easy for the Aggies down the stretch, but Calhoun’s squad made just enough plays — and a handful of free throws — to get revenge for their 81-79 loss at UNLV on Jan. 15.
“Basketball is a game of runs, you know? And we’re going to have our runs, and they going to have their runs,” USU guard Deyton Albury said. “But I feel like the tougher teams just take that, stay composed and stay with the game plan that the coaches have prepared for us offensively and defensively.”
Albury played a vital role for the Aggies, scoring a season-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Always a danger to flash his incredible speed in the open court, Albury also found success driving to the basket against the Rebels, and additionally knocked down USU’s biggest 3-pointer of the night to extend the Aggies’ lead to eight points with 2:25 left in the game.
“That felt good,” Albury said of the shot that forced a UNLV timeout. “And it felt great to do it in the Spectrum with all of the fans going crazy. After I made the shot, I looked around at all of the people going crazy. It was surreal.”
In addition to Albury, who started the game at point guard, the Aggies also got a great offensive performance out of graduate guard Drake Allen. Utah State’s former starter at the point before separating his shoulder in December, Allen went 5 for 7 from the floor and 3 for 3 from 3-point range on his way to scoring a season-high 15 points.
Sophomore guard Mason Falslev (13 points), graduate guard Dexter Akanno (11 points) and graduate guard Ian Martinez (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Aggies, who shot 48% from the field as as team, including a 9-for-25 performance from 3-point range.
The Aggies out-rebounded the Rebels by a 34-32 margin, and USU’s bench outscored UNLV’s 37-4. But both teams committed 11 turnovers and Utah State finished just 19 of 31 from the free-throw line, helping to keep the door open for the feisty Rebels in the second half.
“I told our team I was proud of them; that’s a tough place to win,” UNLV head coach Kevin Krueger said. “That is an unbelievable venue. They had 9,740 fans and probably 7,000 students. So, it was unreal for the guys to battle from 16 down when it would have been very easy to lay down. But they just continued to fight.”
Thomas led the comeback attempt for the Rebels, going 8 of 13 from the field and 5 for 6 from the free-throw line on his way to 22 points. But graduate forward Jalen Hill and junior guard Jaden Henley both contributed 16 points for UNLV, which shot 42.9% overall but just 4 of 20 from 3-point range.
