The Utah State Aggies certainly wouldn’t be the first people to think they could still break even after a particularly disastrous night in Las Vegas.
But even suggesting that you could pull off a 47-point swing over the course of nine days would have felt extremely greedy heading into Utah State’s quarterfinal game against UNLV Thursday afternoon at the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament.
And yet the Aggies are headed to the semifinals Friday night by virtue of a palette-cleansing 80-60 victory over the Rebels on the same floor where they suffered a 92-65 loss on March 3.
“Basketball is a game of matchups. It’s really different that college football and different sports. Some teams just give you different problems, and I’m really, really proud of our players and our staff,” said Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun.
“We were possessed the last two or three days to get this win. We had been hearing about it for a couple of days, but our preparation was really good.”
The No. 1 seed heading into its final tournament as a member of the Mountain West, Utah State (26-6) avenged not only last week’s humbling setback at the Thomas & Mack Center but also an 86-76 loss UNLV at the Spectrum on Jan. 20 — USU’s only home loss of the season.
Aggie junior guard Mason Falslev led the charge in the third game with the Rebels (17-16), scoring 17 of his game-high 24 points in the first half. Senior guard MJ Collins added 20 points for a Utah State team that shot 50.9% from the field and finished 8 for 20 from 3-point range.
“We knew this was our last chance,” Collins said about USU avenging those two regular-season losses to the eighth-seeded Rebels. “You know, there’s a saying that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, and we were just on edge all week. We knew what it meant, not only for us, for the coaches and the community.
“You see, our fans travel, and that was a great advantage for us, and, you know, after the last game, they said some things. We took it disrespectfully, and we used that as an edge today and you saw the outcome.”
The win advances the Aggies into a semifinal clash with another longtime rival from the Silver State: Nevada. The fifth-seeded Wolf Pack edged fourth-seed Grand Canyon 84-80 on Thursday night.
Utah State, which split with Nevada during the regular season, will face the Wolf Pack (22-11) at 7:30 p.m. Friday MT at the Thomas & Mack Center. Should Utah State continue to advance, the MW championship game will tip off at 4 p.m. MT Saturday.
Despite playing 500 miles away from Logan, the Aggies were blessed to have a far larger and more spirited contingent of fans at Thursday’s game, and that did not go unnoticed by Utah State’s players and coaches.
“It feels like the Spectrum. It really does,” said graduate point guard Drake Allen, who finished the game with six points, five assists and three rebounds. “When you get out there, you hear the boos and you hear the cheers and they start doing ‘The Scotsman,’ (and) you know it’s game time.
“We’re grateful for that. We’ve very blessed to have fans that travel, and I think every game this week is going to be a home game for us, so we should be ready to go.”
Utah State last won a Mountain West tournament championship in March 2020 on a game-winning 3-pointer by current Cleveland Cavalier guard Sam Merrill, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started to shut down athletic events around the country.
The Aggies hope that Falslev, who was named the Mountain West Player of the Year on Tuesday, can continue to spearhead another tourney run while battling through a sore tailbone and a banged-up knee.
The former Sky View High School football star could have also used a helmet on Thursday when he hit the back of his head on the floor after being fouled while going up for a rebound late in the first half, but Falslev still logged a team-high 32 minutes of court time, going 10 for 16 from the field, 3 of 5 from 3-point range and adding nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.
“UNLV’s a physical team; they crash hard,” Falslev said after the game. “They push and shove you, but we love that stuff. We’re ready for it.”
First-year UNLV head coach Josh Pastner certainly noticed.
Longer and more athletic than the Aggies at nearly every position, the Rebels, who have basically played only seven players the past couple of months, seemed to wear down, managing only 60 points — the same number of points they put up in the second half alone against the Aggies on March 3.
“This Utah State team was ready to go,” Pastner said. “You know, we had obviously beaten them twice — the only team to beat him at their place — and we did it in convincing fashion the last time we played him here at home, about a week ago.
“But they were ready to go this time. They had great physicality. They made some big shots, and we just did not live enough in the paint in that first half, and that ended up biting us in the butt. And in the second half, they hit some big, big shots, and we just didn’t convert on a couple of opportunities there, and they took advantage of it.”
Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, the leading scorer in the Mountain West this season at 20.8 points per game, ended up pacing the Rebels with 17 points, but the junior guard connected on just 6 of 17 field-goal attempts and had just two points in the first half.
Senior forward Kimani Hamilton, who had a game-high 24 points in last week’s game against the Aggies, finished with just 11 points in 17 minutes before fouling out with 9:17 left. And after racking up a triple-double in the previous game at the Thomas & Mack Center, senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. totaled a mere five points, four rebounds and zero assists before he also fouled out with just over five minutes remaining.
As a team, UNLV shot 40.7% from field, including an 8-for-23 performance from 3-point range, and knocked down only 8 of 15 free-throw attempts.
The Rebels also committed 19 turnovers, which the Aggies turned into 23 points — 20 more points than UNLV managed to do with Utah State’s 13 miscues.
“Credit Utah State,” Pastner said. “They’re a really good team, obviously, and very well coached, and I thought the bottom line was — and we talked about it — is that they thrive off of live-ball turnovers — I call them pick sixes — and bad shots, and we had too many of both.”
Both Pastner and Calhoun also talked about the Aggies’ superior play in the paint, where, despite the Rebels’ size advantage, Utah State outscored UNLV 40-26 and pulled down just three fewer rebounds.
“Our whole goal was to play green tonight, and what I mean by that is just flying around, and taking gambles … kind of figuring it out, problem solving throughout a possession,” Calhoun said. “So, I liked our guys’ activity in the gaps on the ball. Anytime you could turn a team over 19 times, your defense is clicking on all cylinders.
“And probably where I’m most proud is the foul discipline. We talked about foul discipline. You know, they only shot 15 free throws. This is a team that likes to get the ball to the paint and likes to draw fouls, so I thought our ability to play with our chest today was really, really critical.”
Although Utah State’s big men did run into a little bit of foul trouble as the game progressed, MW Sixth Man of the Year Karson Templin battled Hamilton and the other Rebels hard in the post and totaled eight points and five rebounds.
Senior Garry Clark also played well coming off the bench, scoring seven points and pulling down six rebounds while also stepping in to back up Falslev when his teammate was fouled hard in the back by Hamilton in the second half.
“Garry woke up in a bad mood,” Calhoun said with a small grin. “Garry was great. I hope he wakes up in another bad mood. I’ve just been telling him, we’re going to get you 15-20 minutes, and we need you to produce. We don’t need you to score 15-20 points, but we need you to battle on the glass and be good in your pick-and-roll coverages and understand game plans, and he was tremendous tonight.
“I liked it. He didn’t back down. UNLV likes to trash talk, which I think is great. Sometimes it’s good for the game. It’s tournament time, you know. It’s March. It’s win-or-go-home time, and our guys understand that, and I think Garry understands that.”
The Aggies, who are 18-0 this season when scoring 80 or more points, got seven of their first dozen points from Falslev, but they still trailed 16-13 when a 3-pointer by freshman wing Adlan Elamin tied the game with nine minutes left in the first half, and an 8-footer in the lane by Clark 30 seconds later put Utah State ahead for good as the Aggies kept on coming.
A 3-pointer by Collins and two more treys by Falslev highlighted a 20-5 surge that suddenly that changed the game just before halftime.
Up 32-21 with two minutes to go, Utah State ended up scoring 14 of the last 16 points of the first half to take a 37-23 lead into halftime.
“College basketball is a game of runs, and when kids see the ball go through the basket there, their intensity defensively picks up,” Calhoun said. “You know, whatever the score was, it was pretty close, and then we went on that run. The guys’ energy level just raised.”
While their defense wasn’t quite as sharp early in the second half, the Aggies still outscored the Rebels 15-10 over the first six minutes to stretch their lead out to 19 points.
UNLV managed to put together a couple of short scoring bursts over the next 10 minutes, but the Rebels were never able to get any closer than 11 points before Utah State’s defense took over, holding UNLV without a score for more than five minutes.
A steal and a breakaway slam by Collins with 3:33 remaining left no doubt at the outcome, staking the Aggies to a 73-50 lead, which allowed Calhoun to pull his starters with 1:40 to go.
As the final seconds ticked away, Pastner met Calhoun and seemed to suggest that it would be best if the two teams did away with the traditional handshake line, although a couple of Rebels did make their way over to USU’s bench to congratulate the Aggies.
In addition to Hamilton chirping at the Aggie bench after shoving Falslev in the back, Falslev also took exception to Gibbs-Lawhorn blocking his shot on a breakaway layup attempt.
“It’s a physical game; it’s an emotional game,” Allen said. “I think we all knew that it was going to be a tough game, physically, and sometimes, you know, you get riled up, but I’m proud of our guys the way we responded.
“You know, we got a couple technicals, but I think most of ours were for we’re backing up our guys, right? We’re not going to take any disrespect, and that showed.”
Just before they took the court, the Aggies got some news that likely provided some mixed emotions. This afternoon it was announced that Eric Haut, Calhoun’s associate head coach during his two seasons at Utah State, had been hired by Tarleton State as the next head coach of the Texans.
Primarily in charge of USU’s defense, Haut will finish the season with the Aggies before heading to Stephensville, Texas, to take over as a head coach for the first time in his career.
“I think Tarleton State hit a home run,” Calhoun said. “… Eric is a tremendous tactician. He’s a tremendous coach, person and family guy. He’s a winner. So, we’re going to lose him, and that’s tough, but at the end of the day, the greatest thing as a head coach is when you see your staff go on to become head coaches.
“… The players went nuts in there congratulating him when they found out because they know he’s earned it.”