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The Utah State Aggies regained sole possession of first place in the Mountain West Saturday night, but they had to all but sell their souls to get there.
After leading Grand Canyon by 14 points early in the second half, Utah State found itself trailing 59-58 with 4:54 left. But the Aggies finally managed to stop the Antelopes’ stampede and outscored the visitors 16-10 the rest of the way to pull off a 74-69 victory at the Spectrum.
“We weren’t perfect, but we battled through fatigue and we battled through not playing great offensively, and that matters this time of year,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said.
“Toughness matters, and that’s what won the game tonight. We got down with just under five minutes to go, but then we went on a 7-0 run after that.”
Thanks to the gritty win and New Mexico’s win over San Diego State in Albuquerque earlier in the day, Utah State (24-5 overall, 14-4 in the Mountain West) sits one game ahead of the Lobos (22-7, 13-5) and Aztecs (19-9, 13-5) with two games left in the regular season.
The Aggies travel to UNLV (15-14, 15-8) on Tuesday before completing their regular season schedule on March 7 with a home game against New Mexico.
“We’ve got two games to go, and we’re the only team that controls our own destiny. That’s hard to do,” Calhoun said. “... It’s really not about UNLV at this point, it’s about winning a championship.
“If you win the game (in Las Vegas), you’re champs, and if you win two games you’re outright champs, so that needs to be our sole focus.”
Graduate guard Drake Allen and junior forward Karson Templin both scored 15 points for the Aggies, who also got 13 points from senior guard MJ Collins Jr. and 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds from junior guard Mason Falslev.
Utah State turned the ball over just six times, and the USU bench outscored Grand Canyon’s by a 30-6 margin. The home team shot 55.2% and went 7 for 14 from 3-point range while building a 41-27 advantage in the first half, but the Aggie offense was far less efficient in the second half (40% from the floor, four 3-pointers).
But USU still could have held off the Lopes (18-11, 11-7) much easier if it wasn’t for a brutal performance at the free-throw line.
While Grand Canyon didn’t miss from the charity stripe until its final attempt (12 for 13 for the game), the Aggies were just 7 for 14 from the line until knocking down four of their last five shots to help hold off the Lopes.
“I don’t quite understand it,” Calhoun said of USU’s free-throw shooting. “There’s only two areas we’re struggling in offensively, and that’s offensive rebounding and free-throw percentage, so it’s just the concentration of stepping up there in big-pressure moments and making the free throws.
“But I also think the more you talk and stress about it, the more kids worry about it, so let it rip. It’s March.”
Allen had a particularly rough time at the free-throw line, missing his first five attempts in the second half before finally knocking down his sixth to end up with one point over the final 20 minutes.
In the first half, the new father was spectacular, going 6 for 6 from the floor with two 3-pointers and two incredible dunks to lead the Aggies with 14 points.
“I felt like my younger self tonight,” said Allen, who welcomed a baby boy with his wife, Hallestyn, shortly after returning from USU’s road trip to Reno, Nevada, last Sunday.
“I just got to be more aggressive, and I think I was just thinking, ‘You’ve just got to games left at the Spec.’ I’ve got to do something right. I’ve got to give it everything I’ve got.”
Coming off back-to-back losses at Nevada and San Diego State, the Aggies were in desperate need of a victory Saturday night, as well as some revenge, as Grand Canyon knocked Utah State out of the Top 25 by beating the Aggies, 84-74, on Jan. 17, in Phoenix.
But after taking a 3-0 lead on 3-pointer by Makiah Williams less than a minute into the game, not much else went right for Bryce Drew’s squad the rest of the first half.
Utah State ended up connecting on four of its first six 3-point attempts and went on a 9-0 run to put the Lopes on their heels. Sparked by a pair of 3-pointers from Templin, the Aggies then put together another 17-2 run and pulled away by as many as 17 points in the first half.
Allen fired up the sellout crowd of 10,270 even further by scoring six of USU’s final eight points of the opening half, most notably when he soared by 7-foot-1 freshman center Efe Demirel for a highlight-caliber slam dunk.
Following a quick scoring spurt by Grand Canyon to open the second half, a baseline 3-pointer by Falslev rebuilt USU’s lead to 14 points again, but that’s as comfortable as things would get the rest of the night for the Aggies, who were outscored 18-5 by the Antelopes over the next seven minutes to shrink Utah State’s advantage to 51-50.
Grand Canyon managed to pull within a point two more times before finally tying the game at 54-54 on a free throw by Williams with eight minutes remaining.
Two free throws by USU guard Kolby King broke a second tie, then Drew tried to call a timeout on GCU’s following possession but when the officials and his team failed to notice the attempt, he stopped trying and the result was a 3-pointer by Grand Canyon guard Brian Moore Jr. and a 59-58 lead with 4:54 to go.
That’s about the time when Calhoun said his junior guard “activated Falslev mode” and said, “We’re not losing this game. We don’t games in the Spec. Stay together!”
Falslev knocked down a pair of free throws to put Utah State back ahead by a point, then after a rebound, managed to sneak in a layup past Demirel.
After a USU stop with the Spectrum seemingly at its loudest, the building exploded when Falslev drove into the lane, then kicked a pass back out to King. The senior guard buried a deep trey to put USU up 65-59 and force Grand Canyon into calling for a timeout with 2:46 left.
“That was a monster shot,” Calhoun said of King’s only field goal of the game.
But Grand Canyon guard Jaden Henley, who ended up scoring a game-high 22 points, wasn’t done yet, and scored four straight points to pull the Lopes back to within two.
But a final bucket by Templin, who fouled out with 51 seconds left, and another “monster shot” by Collins — a 3-pointer from the corner that put USU up 70-65 with 33 second go — helped keep Grand Canyon at bay.
“Utah State was coming off of two losses and coming back to their home building, so we knew they were going to come out,” Drew said. “They made shots from all over from different guys, but our guys did a good job of manufacturing enough points to stay in striking distance.
“In the second half, what a fantastic start, definitely passing the ball. Once we got into the second half, we outscored them by about 15 points in the first 15 minutes. We love the effort from our guys, especially on the road.”
Henley ended up 8 for 17 from the field, including 1 for 6 from 3-point range, while Williams added three 3-pointers and 19 points.
The Antelopes shot just 40% in the first half, but made half of their shots in the second half and finished 9 for 28 from 3-point range in their first-ever trip to the Spectrum.
Just added to the Mountain West this season, Grand Canyon will stay in that conference while the Aggies make the jump to the Pac-12 in July.