MBB: Ashworth, Aggies rally past Runnin’ Rebels

LAS VEGAS — With hopes of breaking out their dancing shoes later this month, Utah State Men’s Basketball knew they needed to beat UNLV on Wednesday night. 

That’s no easy task to do at the Thomas & Mack Center against a UNLV team that forces nearly 18 turnovers per game. That tenacious defense showed itself with 19 turnovers from the Aggies, though a few were unforced. A couple of those USU turnovers at the beginning of the second half helped UNLV to an 8-0 run, cutting the Aggies’ lead to 49-45.

However, USU guard Steven Ashworth was there to overcome the Aggies’ fewer possessions with efficient scoring, nailing a long 2-pointer with his foot on the line and two deep 3-pointers to go on an 8-0 run by himself propelling the USU lead back to double-digits 57-45. 

“His little flurry there gave us a little bit of a sigh of relief,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “Then we were able to kind of play the game from there.”

Ashworth was the sparkplug to a huge momentum change in the second half that led to a big Aggie victory 91-66.

Odom called the long two-point shot that started the run big and Ashworth agreed. 

“We really needed to make sure we executed on offense so that we could get that bucket, push the lead up a little bit,” Ashworth said. “We ran that plate correctly, they defended it well, and so I had to make a little move, and sadly, it was a two but it went in. I think that just kind of got me going in the second half, made me confident from behind the arc. Even though it was a two, it felt deep. Knew the next two possessions if the opportunity was there, I should shoot it. And so I did that and my teammates gave me all the confidence I needed for that little spurt.”

Once Utah State got it going in the second half, the Rebels had no answer to slow USU down. The Aggies outscored UNLV 40-21 in the final 15 minutes with 3-pointers, two-handed slams and good looks off of assists. 

Ashworth scored a game-high 27 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and dished out a game-high seven assists along the way. 

Guard Max Shulga also made a big impact for USU with 19 points, including three treys, and three assists. Odom called his performance “excellent,” but qualified it right after. 

“Max was solid,” Odom said. “Max scored but, he made some nice passes at the end there, but he’s capable of playing a little bit more under control than he did later in that second half, but, and he knows that.”

The Aggie bench combined for 28 points in their highest-scoring effort since they put in 30 at Fresno State on Jan. 28., though they took a significant hit when Ashworth became a starter. Dan Akin led the bench with 13 points followed by nine from Zee Hamoda and six from RJ Eytle-Rock.  

“We have good players on our team,” Odom said. “It’s been like that all year, different guys have scored you know all season.”

Ashworth added that the team has “so many different weapons that we can go to.” 

Utah State secured their lead in the first half on a 14-0 run midway through the period that featured eight points from Ashworth and a basket each from Trevin Dorius, Eytle-Rock and Shulga to build a 26-15 lead with seven minutes before halftime. After the teams went back and forth from beyond the arc, the Aggies scored eight of their last 10 points of the half from the free-throw line to take a 44-32 lead into the locker room. 

With the victory, Utah State improves to 23-7 and 12-5 in Mountain West play. The Aggies wrap up the regular season by hosting Boise State on Saturday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM. 

Featured image by Paige Johnson from the Nevada game on Feb. 18.