Aggies fall to Boise State after slow offensive night
Utah State Men’s Basketball fell on the road to a hot Boise State Broncos team on Wednesday night 82-65. The Aggies dropped to 24-5 overall and 14-4 in league play and fell out of first place in the conference standings with the loss just a night after first-place New Mexico fell at the hands of San Diego State.
Slow offense plagued the Aggies against the Broncos, shooting just 42% on the night and scoring only 65 points, their lowest point total since their Feb. 1 loss to New Mexico. USU came into the night shooting 49.7% on field goals which was fifth best in the country.
“We had a lot of bad turnovers. They dominated us on our cuts. They just bullied us around the rim. We got no leverage, no finishes,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said following the loss. “Their team was ready to go. Aggies were not. That’s on the coaches. That’s on the players. We’re in this together.”
The first four minutes of the game were equal for each side, with neither team jumping out to an early lead and the Broncos holding a 10-9 advantage at the 16-minute mark.
Holding to that one-point lead, Boise State ripped off a 7-0 scoring run to take an eight-point lead.
The Aggies responded with a layup from Dexter Akanno and a three from Isaac Johnson, but a quick three and jump shot from the Broncos pushed the deficit back to eight with 9:48 remaining in the half.
Boise State started the game in a similar manner as their Jan. 11 contest in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, connecting on each of their first four three-point attempts.
After twice finding themselves in an eight-point hole, Utah State went on an 11-2 run capped by a Mason Falslev three to take a one-point lead with just under six minutes left before halftime. Falslev led the Aggies with 19 points and three assists on 7-15 shooting.
The Broncos found their footing again before the intermission, bouncing back to retake the lead 37-31 at the half. After their initial three-point barrage, Boise State finished just 1-9 from deep in the half.
Utah State came out of the locker room firing, scoring seven points in the first two minutes, including five from Falslev. In what would be indicative of the rest of the half, the Aggies were unable to make much headway despite the fast second-half start and again trailed by eight with just over 15 minutes left in the game.
USU struggled to trim the lead in the second half, as each time they scored, they were unable to get a defensive stop on the other end. Utah State scored on back-to-back unanswered possessions just twice in the second half, and their largest run was limited to just five points.
“They were the tougher team tonight. Did we miss some open [shots]? Yeah. But the reality of it — you’ve got to be able to manufacture points when you’re not shooting well, whether that’s getting to the rim, whether that’s through the post, whatever the case may be,” Calhoun said. “We were unable to do that tonight.”
Many things contributed to USU’s struggles in the second half, but fouling and rebounding on the defensive end were two critical areas in which the Aggies fell short. Utah State tallied 15 fouls in the second half, giving Boise State 17 points on 20 free throw attempts. They were also outrebounded by the Broncos 32-25 on the night.
On the other side, the Broncos didn’t dominate the Aggies through long scoring runs but slowly and methodically increased their lead through the half. The largest BSU run was held to six straight points, but they were able to frequently mount smaller stretches of four or five unanswered.
The win for Boise State was a complete team victory, as four Broncos scored in double-digits, including a game-high 21 points from Mountain West Player of the Year candidate Tyson Degenhart. Additionally, Boise State continued its recent hot streak with a win in seven of its last eight games, playing itself back into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
“We have not lost like that all year. So, we’ll see what we’re made of in the next 48 hours because we got kind of manhandled tonight,” Calhoun said.
Utah State came into Wednesday’s matchup ranked fifth in the country in assists, averaging 18.4 assists per game. The Aggies mustered only nine assists and 22 made baskets on the evening, contributing to their offensive woes.
“We held the ball too long. We worked on it for two days. Boise is a pack line team — they force you to take and make a lot of threes because they really pack it in,” Calhoun said. “When you’re not stopping anybody, you can’t get runouts. We’re a team that needs transition. We don’t have big, physical, strong guys. That’s our Achilles heel … We couldn’t get stops, so they negated a lot of that.”
Utah State has just two regular-season games remaining, with their biggest remaining test coming on the road at Colorado State on Saturday. The Rams sit just behind USU in the conference rankings and will be looking to make up ground and gain momentum going into the conference tournament.
“We’ll leave tomorrow at one o’clock. We’ll get there and practice tomorrow in Fort Collins but really got to digest this tape, see what happened, learn from it and try to get ready to beat a very good Colorado State team,” Calhoun said.
Colorado State is also led by a Mountain West Player of the Year candidate in Nique Clifford, who is averaging over 17 points and 10 rebounds per game. The Rams are on a hot streak of their own — they have won nine of their last 11 games with their last loss coming against Utah State on Feb 11. The Aggies will then have a week off before they host Air Force for their final regular season game of the year.
For Utah State, Saturday’s matchup marks their last Quad 1 game of the season with potential NCAA tournament implications for both teams on the line. The game will tip off at 2 p.m. Mountain Time on Fox Sports 1.