LOGAN — Saturday afternoon’s Utah State Aggies basketball game against Montana State featured a collection of mascots from around the state, including costumed representatives from the Utah Jazz (Jazz Bear), Salt Lake Bees (Bumble), Utah Mammoth (Tusky) and Real Salt Lake (Leo the Lion).
Utah State’s own Big Blue ended up battling those visitors and an eclectic group of mascots from local high schools and businesses during halftime, eventually prevailing in a spirited game of basketball musical chairs.
For much of the actual game, the Aggies also shot the basketball from the free-throw line like they were wearing oversized, padded gloves, but after shooting just 50% from the free-throw line until late into the second half, Utah State managed to go a perfect 10 for 10 from the charity stripe at the end of regulation and in overtime to fight off another impressive effort by Montana State.
“I was really proud of those guys in those moments,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said after his team’s 84-81 victory at the Spectrum. “I thought they did an excellent job of staying focused the last four or five minutes.
“But credit Montana State. They’re a great team, I’ve said that for four days. They’re very well coached. That guy (Matt Logie) has won at every level, and I really respect coaches that actually have to climb the ladder, they’re not just given jobs. He’s won at every level, and he really should have been 4-0 against higher-level teams, so they’re gonna be a really, really good team.”
While the overtime win means the Aggies have started the season 7-0 for the second time in two years under Calhoun, the veteran coach was certainly hoping for a stronger performance coming off his team winning the Shriner’s Charleston Classic LowCountry Bracket title in Charleston, S.C., last week.
“We had three bad practices, to be honest with you,” Calhoun said. “Thanksgiving was a nightmare. Friday got slowly better. I don’t know what it was, but I think it was a lack of humility.”
Senior guard MJ Collins Jr., the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week after putting up 40 points in USU’s rout of Davidson, led Utah State with 23 points and four 3-pointers Saturday.
Junior guard Mason Falslev (17 points, eight rebounds, five steals) and junior forward Karson Templin (15 points, eight rebounds) also came through with key moments down the stretch, helping Utah State hold off the feisty Bobcats (3-5).
“What stands out to me is the fight that our kids have, and the quality of team that we’re building,” Logie said. “(The Aggies are) a top 25 team and program in the country and this is a top 10 atmosphere in the country, and you know, we’ve got nothing to critique about today. Our guys came in here with an attack mentality.
“We knew that we were gonna have to shoot our shot and be impressive and some of those things didn’t fall, but we also knew there were other margins we could command. We could take care of the basketball and get the second possessions on offensive rebounds, and we did all those things.”
Logie was coaching at Division II Point Loma Nazarene when he was hired by Montana State in the spring of 2023 after former Bobcats’ head coach Danny Sprinkle was lured away from Utah State.
Sprinkle, who also convinced MSU standouts Great Osobor and Darius Brown II to leave Bozeman and come with him to Cache Valley, ended up winning 28 games, a Mountain West title and an NCAA Tournament game in the 2023-24 season before leaving for Washington.
And ironically enough, Brown’s younger brother, Davian Brown, is now playing for Montana State. On Saturday, the senior guard ended up scoring 18 points and knocking down four 3-pointers for the Bobcats.
In addition, current USU assistant coach Johnny Hill and athletic trainer Brett Ritter also followed Sprinkle to Cache Valley.
“I’ve met him a few times before, so it was cool,” Templin said of Davian Brown, “and I’ve got to know a few of those Montana State guys through Great and Darius, and (former USU grad assistant) Xavier Bishop is there now, and I’m pretty tight with him, so it was kind of a big game for everybody with Sprinkle coaching at Montana State.
“It’s kind of like a rivalry and they came to play, and we didn’t bring our best basketball.”
The Bobcats, who lost games at Colorado, Stanford and Boise State by a total of 19 points, outrebounded the Aggies by a 43-37 margin, and got a game-high 26 points and eight rebounds from Patrick McMahon before the 6-foot-7 senior guard fouled out with under two seconds remaining in overtime.
Senior guard Jed Miller knocked down two 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds to keep Montana State in the game until the very end.
“You’ve got to just deal with adversity, and we did,” Templin said with a sigh. “They made some tough shots. MJ had some good contests on Jed Miller, and man, the shots were just falling.”
The Aggies shot 46.8% from the floor, including an 8-of-22 performance from 3-point range and an 18-for-26 effort from the free-throw line.
Eleven steals – against just four by the Bobcats – certainly helped USU prevail in a weird game that had Aggie senior guard Drake Allen finish 0 for 7 from the field while dishing out nine of USU’s 17 assists.
Montana State, which knocked down just one of its first 16 3-point attempts, finished 11 of 36 from beyond the arc, while shooting 39.1% overall.
The Bobcats led by as many as five points in the first half before senior guard Kolby King came off the bench for Utah State and injected a quick burst of offense to help the hosts steady the ship.
Utah State, which managed to extend its lead to as many as seven points in the first half, took a 36-34 lead into intermission, and pulled away to its biggest lead of eight points with 14 minutes left in regulation.
But the Aggies were never quite able to sustain their offense — partially due to poor free-throw shooting – and the Bobcats took advantage, eventually tying the game at 55-55 on a bucket by McMahon with 6:58 to go.
The home team battled back to go up 67-61 on a score by Templin with under two minutes remaining, but that advantage was short-lived thanks to five straight points by McMahon and a 3-pointer by Cavin Holden.
A pair of free throws by Collins tied the game against 69-69 with 40 seconds left in regulation, and thanks to a corner trap by Falslev and King, McMahon ended up losing the ball out of bounds with just under 19 seconds on the clock.
With a chance to win the game, the ball ended up in Falslev’s hands, but the Bobcats’ defense collapsed on him about 10 feet out and he ended up on his knees with time expiring.
Falslev’s desperate toss ended up near the rim and in Templin’s hands, who immediately put it through the basket, but a replay showed the ball still in Templin’s hands as the red light came on, negating the potential game-winner.
“I thought it was gonna count, which I would have liked because then we would have just been done,” said Templin, who ended up on the court on his backside as the ball went through the basket. “But we got it done in the end, so we’ll take it.”
Going into overtime, Brown scored four points for Montana State in the first two minutes, but Collins knocked down a 3-pointer in between.
A basket by Templin gave USU a 74-73 advantage, and the Aggies never trailed again, even though Falslev’s spin move for a score with just under a minute left ended up being the hosts’ final field goal of the game.
Falslev, Allen, Collins and King combined to go 8 for 8 from the free-throw line the rest of the way to keep the Bobcats at bay.
Montana State’s final long pass with 1.9 seconds to go was deflected by the Aggies just enough to keep Miller from firing up yet another 3-pointer.
“I give our fans a lot of credit; I thought they willed us,” Calhoun said of the crowd of 8,189 that was minus a lot of students still away on Thanksgiving break. “I’m not sure where a lot of the HURD members were — there were a lot of absent seats — but I thought the public really stood up.
“They carried us, and I haven’t said that since I’ve been here. It’s usually the HURD. I really respect the HURD, but there was a lot of empty seats tonight over there.”
