USU MBB: Broncos hand Aggies first conference loss

BOISE, Idaho — Utah State Men’s Basketball lost its first conference game to Boise State 82-59 on Saturday. The Aggies dropped to 13-3 on the season and 2-1 in Mountain West Conference play.

From the tip-off, it was apparent this was going to be a hard game for the Aggies to win in enemy territory. In front of 12,000 fans at the ExtraMile Arena, Utah State was pushed to the brim both physically and mentally.

The Aggies kept it close for the first 10 minutes of the first half, starting a quick but effective 5-0 run to pull within 3, trailing 18-15. But that’s where things got ugly for USU.

Over the next three and a half minutes, Boise State would go on a 10-0 run hitting two threes to put the Aggies down 13 before a free throw from guard Steven Ashworth stopped the bleeding. 

But Utah State couldn’t cauterize their wounds. 

Utah State would find themselves down by as many as 14 in the half then Bronco guard Max Rice hit a 3-pointer as time nearly expired to send the Aggies down 15 at halftime.

“Boise State was dynamite. Their players and staff were clearly ready to go. They got off to a great start and it was certainly their night and not ours,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “It was back and forth there a little bit but our defense was not stepping up appropriately.”

Utah State tried to get things fixed in the second half, but much like the first, it was all Broncos.

The Aggies had their largest deficit of the night at 24 points with 14:12 to go in the game, and the contest seemed to plateau after that.

“We had some open looks that didn’t go down that could’ve changed the feeling that we had within the game, but they didn’t,” Odom said. “They were getting behind our defense way too much.”

After back-and-forth scoring between the rivals, the Broncos came out victorious while out-scoring the Aggies 37-29 in the second half.

A notable piece to this game was an injury to senior guard Rylan Jones. Jones — who has already dealt with a concussion this season — was hit in the face in the first half and had blood coming from his lip. After being helped to his feet he was wobbly.

Odom said he did not know the severity of Jones’ injury after the game. 

Toward the end of the game, things got chippy. Guard Chibuzo Agbo of Boise State hit a 3-pointer in front of Aggie forward Taylor Funk and threw up a three-sign with his fingers in his face. 

The ensuing possession, Funk was walking off the court when it seemed that Agbo said something to Funk, and the two collided chest to chest before being separated.

Both were assessed technical fouls and Agbo fouled out as a result.

A few possessions later, Rice and Aggie forward Dan Akin got into a scuffle which resulted in additional double-technical fouls.

Akin was visibly frustrated with the game prior to the incident and tense emotions seemed to be a result.

Funk finished the game with 14 points, was 4-5 shooting from deep and grabbed three rebounds.

Guard Sean Bairstow continued his double-figure scoring trend with 10 points and two rebounds.

“I’m in a bit of a groove,” Bairstow said. “I know my spots and when to attack. When the ball moves everyone gets their looks and I am just finding my opportunities.”

Bairstow has scored in double figures in eight of his last nine games.

As a team, Utah State shot 23-58 from the field, 39.7%, and 7-21 from deep. As well as an abysmal 6-14 from the free-throw line. 

The Aggies allowed the Broncos to shoot 31-62 from the field and 11-19 from deep which was good for 57.9%.

One positive is that USU only turned the ball over 10 times while forcing the Broncos to turn it over 11 times.

Another telling spot for the game was the rebound discrepancy. Utah State had only 29 rebounds to Boise State’s 41, in addition to the nine on the offensive glass.

Utah State will attempt to look past this blowout as they face Wyoming on Tuesday. The Aggies and Cowboys met up twice last season with the Pokes winning both games by two points off of game-winners coming from forward Graham Ike. Ike is averaging 19.5 points this season to go along with 9.6 boards per game.

The game will tip-off from the Spectrum at 8:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM and FS1.

Featured image by Sam Warner from the Utah Tech game.