LOGAN — In what may have been UNLV’s final visit to the Spectrum, the Rebels left off where they started 43 years ago.
Down by 14 points with just under 13 minutes to go Tuesday night, UNLV rallied back to stun the Aggies on their home court, 86-76.
Ranked 23rd in the AP Top 25 last week, the loss to the Rebels (10-8 overall, 5-2 in the Mountain West) marked the first back-to-back setbacks of the season for Utah State, which also lost at Grand Canyon, 84-74, last Saturday.
“There’s no excuses to play the way we did,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “It was a collective effort. We got outcoached, we got outplayed, and it was obviously our worst loss since I’ve been the coach here, for sure.”
The game was tied 38-38 at halftime before the Aggies (15-3, 6-2) pulled away early in the second half as the Rebels, who already play with a short bench, got into some severe foul trouble.
But despite keeping three players with four fouls on the floor for much of the second half, first-year UNLV head coach Josh Pastner managed to orchestrate a shocking comeback.
The Rebels, who made 12 of their final 15 field-goal attempts, outscored Utah State 42-18 over the final 12 minutes of the game.
“You know, there’s going to be a lot of highs and lows throughout a season, and this is obviously a low for us,” Calhoun said. “I don’t feel like we’ve gotten better over the last seven or eight days, and that really stinks as a coach because you put a lot of time into scouting and practice, and I’m not getting the effort from a lot of our guys.”
Utah State guard Mason Falslev (21 points) scored 20 or more points for the third straight game, while freshman forward Adlan Elamin added 15 points, senior guard MJ Collins Jr. finished with 14 and graduate point guard Drake Allen totaled 10 points, nine assists and just one turnover.
But it wasn’t nearly enough to hold off the Rebels, who put up a season-worst 86 points against USU’s defense, which was second in the Mountain West at just 67.7 points per game.
“Defensively, we need to have better practices — myself included,” said USU forward Karson Templin. “We’ve been lackadaisical, and there’s no excuse for it.
“We just need to play harder and practice and tighten up some of our stuff. That’s totally on us players, myself included.”
The Aggies, who are moving into the Pac-12 Conference this summer while the Rebels will remain in the Mountain West, had won straight seven games in Logan over their longtime rivals coming into Tuesday’s game.
Overall, Utah State had won 11 of 13 games agains UNLV at the Spectrum after losing the first 11 home games and 25 straight games overall in the all-time series, which began in 1983.
The Rebels, who trailed 9-0 to open the game, managed to reach back into their past on Tuesday, getting 21 points from junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and 20 from freshman forward Tryin Jones.
Eight minutes into the game, Jones appeared to be lost for the rest of the contest and possibly longer when he barreled into Falslev when the junior guard was shooting a 3-pointer.
The Las Vegas area native got the worst of the collision, grabbing his right knee and writhing on the floor in pain, but after being helped up the tunnel, Jones returned to the court five minutes before halftime with his leg tapped up and ended up logging 32 total minutes.
“He’s a good player ... and I think he’s one of the neatest stories in the country,” Calhoun said of Jones, who finished 5 for 13 from field and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line.
“When I saw him six or eight months ago, he was not that. That kid has worked. That kid’s got a motor, and he’s going to be a terrific player. ... He’s really, really good. I like him a lot.”
Overall, the Rebels shot 57.1% from the field in the second half after shooting just 43.3% over the first 20 minutes of the game.
UNLV, which was averaging 79 points points per game coming into the Spectrum, also went 7 for 14 from 3-point range, 21 for 25 from the free-throw line and outrebounded the Aggies, 40-31.
Senior forward Kimani Hamilton, who fouled after playing just 12 minutes, added 10 points for the Rebels, as did sophomore center Emmanuel Stephen.
Senior forward Walter Brown contributed 10 of UNLV’s 19 total bench points.
Similarly, Templin came off the bench to score 10 of the Aggies’ 15 bench points, and was the only non-starter to play more than eight minutes for the home team.
“It was one of the worst bench performances I’ve seen in a long time,” Calhoun said. “We had two kids that were -13 at halftime on the scorecard. It was just a horrific, horrific effort tonight from the bench.”
First in the conference in field goal percentage at 51.6% coming into Tuesday’s game, the Aggies shot just 44.8% from the field, including a 7-for-24 performance from 3-point range.
Even worse, Utah State shot a season-worst 54.8% (17 for 31) from the free-throw line.
The hosts’ woeful performance from the charity stripe didn’t feel like it was going to be an issue after the Aggies scored 22 of the first 30 points of the second half to get the crowd of 9,642 of rocking.
But Utah State seemingly went to sleep after that early burst, perhaps due to the late, 9:15 p.m. tipoff, while the Rebels kept battling, making big plays and getting key stops after switching to a 1-3-1 defense.
“I knew that for us to win this game, especially coming off of their loss versus Grand Canyon, we were going to have to be warriors today,” Pastner said. “It’s a great home-court advantage that they have. I’ve been in some great leagues and at some high-level places. I’ve been in the ACC, I was in the old Pac-10 — this is as good of a home court as there is.
“Credit to Utah State, to coach Calhoun and their program for that atmosphere. For us to come into this place and win a game like that, it was really hard to do, but we toughed it out. It wasn’t pretty, but we found ways to make plays.”
Utah State now sits in a two-way tie for second place in the Mountain West with Nevada (14-5, 6-2), behind unbeaten San Diego State (13-4, 7-0).
The Aggies head back out on the road this Friday to take on Colorado State (12-7, 3-5), a team they beat 100-58 at the Spectrum on Dec. 20.