Aggies defeat the Broncos in honor of Stew Morrill court debut
LOGAN — After a loss against Nevada on Tuesday, the Utah State Aggies beat the Boise State Broncos 80-61 in front of a sold-out crowd in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday night.
USU started the season 19-4 under head coach Danny Sprinkle, the best start to a season under a first-year Aggie head coach in program history.
On top of this victory, Saturday’s game was a celebration of Stew Morrill, former head coach of the Aggies and legend of the game.
“With coach Morrill being honored here tonight, all the former players back, you know, rivalry game — like, it means a lot. It means a lot to sit in the seat that I sit in because I know I’m representing Stew,” Sprinkle said in a postgame interview.
In a pregame interview, Morrill said about his grandchildren, “They’ll be able to see their grandpa, and it’s his name on the court. And that’s pretty dang special.”
Stew Morrill waves to fans during half-time of the Boise State game at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Feb 10.
Morrill coached the Aggies for 17 seasons with an overall record of 402-156.
A few notable attendees of the game included the Big West championship team of the 2003-04 season and the WAC championship team for the 2009-10 season.
Former Utah State Head Coaches in attendance:
Tim Duryea (2016-18, 3 seasons)
Stew Morrill (1999-2015, 17 seasons)
Larry Eustachy (1994-98, 5 seasons)
Kohn Smith, former Bobby Knight assistant (1989-93, 5 seasons)
Rod Tueller (1980-88, 9 seasons)
Dutch Belnap (1974-79, 6 seasons)
Roughly 65 former players were back tonight, including members of two teams that were being recognized, 2003-04 and 2008-09.
The Aggies won the jump ball, and Mason Falslev started the game off hot with three-point play from an and-one foul by the Broncos. He got the ball again the next offensive possession and drained a three for the first six points of the game.
#12 Mason Falslev dribbles down the court after stealing the ball from Boise State at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Feb 10.
Falslev has scored in double figures in 13 games this season, logged at least five rebounds in 12 and at least five assists in three.
“Our practices were just like that game — physical, hard. You know, we knew that we were going to be in a dogfight, so we practice like it,” Falslev said in a postgame interview after attaining his career high of 25 points.
Sprinkle spoke on Falslev’s mentality and performance.
“I haven’t seen him do it for 40 minutes. He did it for 40 minutes tonight,” Sprinkle said.
Even though the Aggie offense shot 51.8% in field goals and 42.9% from the three, Sprinkle said they didn’t practice offense during the week.
“We didn’t do much offensively at all the last two days. It was all defense,” Sprinkle said.
Great Osobor got a huge block on Bronco Jace Whiting, which then turned into a shot clock violation and turnover in favor of the Aggies.
Tensions were hot in the Spectrum, and Bronco head coach Leon Rice got heated at the crowd and started talking back to them as the game moved along.
Ian Martinez drained a three to send the crowd into a frenzy. Rice was forced to call a timeout to cool down the crowd.
The crowd chanted “Ball don’t lie” after a questionable foul call, and O’Mar Stanley missed both free throws for the Broncos.
The Broncos moved a 1-3-1 zone defense in the wake of the Aggie offense. However, the Aggies painted the court by throwing the ball around corner to corner. The Bronco defense crumbled, which resulted in an easy bucket for Isaac Johnson.
The crowd chanted “Leon sucks” after a questionable no-call by the referees.
Double flagrant fouls were called on Bronco Chibuzo Agbo and Johnson after they scuffled and fell to the ground, a perfect example of the heated play between these teams.
Darius Brown II did a spin move for a quick jumper and gave the student section a cool look on his transition to defense.
Leon Rice got a technical foul after shouting down a ref for a play call, and the crowd chanted profanities in response.
This was the third technical foul in a row on Rice against the Aggies. The first was last year in the Mountain West tournament, the second was the previous game this season against the Broncos where the Aggies won in overtime, and the third was Saturday’s game.
The USU bench celebrates #1 Great Osobor blocking a Boise State player at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Feb 10.
When Falslev scored a transition bucket for the Aggies and forced Rice to call a timeout, the entire arena got on their feet and erupted in applause and cheers for the failures of the Broncos.
The crowd continuously leveled taunts against Max Rice, chanting “Max Rice sucks” and “Who’s your daddy?”
One side of the Spectrum yelled “I hate” and the other side responded with “Max Rice.” They also chanted “We want Max” as he was subbed out for the game.
One poster of a crowd member said, “Max Rice pours milk first.”
The crowd also taunted Bronco Andrew Meadow with an “ugly duckling” chant.
Victory seemed within grasp for the Aggies with a score of 78-59 with three minutes left in the game.
Osobor got an and-one shot to the final score of 80-61 and free ice cream from Culver’s.
This is the first time the Aggies have swept the Broncos since the 2010-11 season. This game also puts the Aggies as the sole leader of the Mountain West conference.
The win comes after two straight losses against San Diego State and Nevada. Sprinkle wanted to come into this game knowing what to expect.
“We have a quote, ‘You never know what kind of horse you got until you hook them to a heavy load.’ And I let them know that load was heavy,” Sprinkle said.
Morrill, during a halftime speech, summed up what this game meant to the team after those two losses.
“I am still alive, and I am still an Aggie,” he said.