Aggies rally to 86-76 win over Villanova in NCAA Tournament
SAN DIEGO – With 3:54 left in the first round of the NCAA Tournament first round, Utah State’s MJ Collins Jr. was fouled on a three-point jumper, trailing Villanova 73-71. The foul triggered the under-four media timeout, giving the Aggies time to talk things over before the final stretch.
Collins, who finished the game with 20 points, would have three free throws out of the timeout with the chance to give his squad a late lead, hunting a first-round victory. The Aggies had led by as many as nine in the first half, but red-hot shooting from deep by the Wildcats, hitting nine triples in the first half, turned that lead into a two-point deficit at the half.
The second half had been a dog fight for the first 16:06, with neither team leading by more than four points during the previous 10 minutes.
Collins knocked down two of his three free throws out of the timeout, tying the game at 73, and, more importantly, spurring a 15-3 Aggie run to the final horn that would lift them to an 86-76 victory.
“No plays, just run and flow and do what we do,” junior guard Mason Falslev said. “We’ve learned concepts all year that should let us up for good offense, so just trusting in that down the stretch.”
Utah State got out of the gate fast behind Falslev, who scored six of the Aggies’ first eight points as they took an early lead. Falslev finished the game with a team-high 22 points and seven rebounds.
A few minutes later, three free throws from Kolby King and a vicious dunk from Drake Allen pushed the Aggie lead to seven, at 15-8.
Utah State’s lead got as big as nine points in the first half, as it led 22-13 with just over 12 minutes left in the half, prompting a timeout from Villanova.
The teams traded baskets before the Wildcats ripped a 16-5 run to take their first lead of the game at 31-33, hitting three triples during that span.
Two more threes would close the half for Villanova to give them a 39-37 lead into the break. The Wildcats hit nine threes in the first half compared to Utah State’s one, giving them the lead despite the Aggies controlling much of the game.
“It’s a testament to Villanova. They’re a very good basketball team. And I think they made some 3s that were contested, and sometimes we made errors and gave them some open ones,” Allen said. “We knew they were going to shoot a lot of 3s, and I think we got lost a couple times, but all you do is keep battling.”
The Wildcats came out of the break just as hot, hitting eight of their first nine shots and starting the second half on a 9-1 run to take a 10-point lead over the Aggies, prompting a timeout from Calhoun.
“There’s certain points in a game where you’ve got to win the margins. It’s right before halftime, coming out of halftime,” Calhoun said. “We’ve been unbelievable and after timeout plays and coming out of the timeout and really coming out of the halftime in general. That was very uncharacteristic for us.”
The Aggies responded to the timeout, hitting five of their next six shots on a 14-4 run to tie the game at 54, this time to force a timeout from Villanova.
“I thought, as coaches, if we hit the panic button, our players would too,” Calhoun said. “They stayed the course, and we kept chopping it down and eventually tied it, eventually kept the lead.”
A layup from Tyler Perkins promptly reclaimed the lead for Villanova, and a layup from Duke Brennan pushed the lead to four after a missed three from Collins.
After Brennan’s layup, Villanova finished the game just 7-22 shooting, including only making one of its final 10 shots.
Utah State, on the other hand, made nine of its final 11 shots to surge to victory.
“It was a struggle to get the ball to go in the basket, but once a few go in, you gain more confidence,” Falslev said. “Shout out to the point guards, they executed great today. Drake and [Elijah Perryman], they just put the ball in the right spot and allowed us to kind of do our thing.”
Utah State hit only two threes in the game, though it still managed to shoot 55% from the field, winning the game by dominating the interior and the free-throw line. The Aggies had a 42-26 advantage on points in the paint and shot 37 free throws to Villanova’s 13, making 28 of them.
Villanova, for much of the game, was able to hang around via the deep ball, knocking down 14 threes in the game, though it didn’t hit one in the final six minutes of the game.
“We didn’t want to overreact to the 3s, but we felt like the game would loosen up eventually,” Calhoun said. “You saw MJ made some big steals. Mason, Adlan [Elamin], Drake, their activity, [Karson Templin]’s activity, defensively, I thought, was the difference.”
With the win, Utah State has now won an NCAA Tournament game in two of the last three seasons, with both wins coming over teams from a power conference. The Aggies also advance to the round of 32 to play top-seeded Arizona on Sunday.