Tosi, Aggies open Jacobson era with blowout win

Utah State men’s basketball opened the Ben Jacobson era with a bang, hanging a 94-58 win on the Idaho State Bengals on Monday night to start the Aggies’ 2026-27 campaign.

“This is a special place,” Jacobson said after the win. “Santa Clara was a lot of fun, but having the full force and the full weight of the HURD, and I thought our crowd, our season ticket holders, and others who bought the single-game tickets, I thought they were terrific, and that’s a special place.”

Utah State entered the matchup as 26-point favorites and, despite only leading by eight at the break, cruised to the 36-point victory behind a blistering second half where the Aggies connected on over 70% of their field goal attempts.

USU got out to a sloppy start against the Bengals as part of a sluggish offensive half overall, falling behind early after a spurt of turnovers and offensive rebounds allowed, and they found themselves trailing 10-7 five minutes into the game.

Dallin Hall tied the game at 10 with a three, his first points in an Aggie uniform. Neither squad could find much traction, and they found themselves tied at 12 at the under-12 media timeout.

With the score tied again at 14, a USU defensive stand that held Idaho State 1-7 shooting to go along with a 10-2 scoring run gave them a 22-16 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Bengals kept it close through most of the first half, before a late burst from Utah State gave them a 37-29 advantage at the half.

Both teams struggled from beyond the arc in the half, with USU hitting just one three on nine attempts and Idaho State going 2-14.

“There was a stretch in the first half where things not being as, I mentioned, being as smooth as they were in the three exhibition games. I could feel that it was bothering us just a little bit,” Jacobson said. “I don’t think our effort dropped, but I also didn’t feel like we were competing at the level that we have for most of the exhibition games and the way we did in the second half.”

The Aggies came out of the half on a mission, rapidly extending their lead to 12. A few minutes later, the Aggies started imposing their will with ease, going on a 12-2 run to push their lead to 54-37, where they held the Bengals without a field goal for over 4 minutes.

After taking a 54-37 lead, Utah State rattled off 10 straight field goals to push the lead to 72-46.

The Aggies cruised to the win over Idaho State, leading by as many as 39 before falling on a 94-58 opening night victory.

Utah State was led by redshirt freshman Kingston Tosi, who, in his first official game for the Aggies, tallied 26 points and 5 rebounds.

“I’ve been watching from the sidelines for the past year, and every time it’s like, ‘man, I can’t wait to get out there.’” Tosi said. “We’ve been working all year for this day. So, we’ve got a long season ahead, and we’re really excited for everything coming forward.”

Utah State finished with three players in double digits, with Will Hornseth putting up 16 and Solomon Callaghan adding 14 of his own.

Hall led the team with 34 minutes, scoring eight points while dishing out a team-high seven assists.

“You can take a lot forward from a game like this, where things don’t go real smooth offensively, and you still work your way to a four-point lead and an eight-point lead, and you’re up at halftime. Instead of down two, you’re up eight,” Jacobson said. “You can learn a lot, and you can take a lot from it, a lot of positive things from it.”

Utah State will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they take on Omaha at 2 pm.