Brown II seals the Mountain West regular season champion title with last-second three.

LOGAN—Utah State University beat the University of New Mexico Lobos Saturday night, 87-85. They have achieved the title of Mountain West regular season champions for the first time since joining the conference 11 years ago.  

“[I] appreciate everybody in the program for what they did, because they gave Cache Valley and this community something they’ll never forget,” coach Danny Sprinkle said.  

The Aggies came into this game ranked 22 in the AP poll, the seventh time this year they’ve been in the top 25.   

Utah State ranks second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage defense at 27.9%.  

Before the game started, the HURD section chanted “Jaelen sucks,” referring to Jaelen House, point guard for the Lobos. This would be repeated several times throughout the game. 

Aggies lost the tip, and the Lobos scored a quick point. House stole the ball from Darius Brown II on the inbound that resulted in another bucket for the Lobos. The next play on the other end, Isaac Johnson got a charging foul for a screen. These first three plays were a tough start for the Aggies.  

Ian Martinez got a steal, sent it to Brown. Brown sent it to Martinez for a dunk over a Lobo and a drawn foul. He made the free throw for a three-point play. Martinez is averaging 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.  

Brown, 6’2”, got a block on 6’ 10” Nelly Junior Joseph. While blocking isn’t something he usually does, Brown has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.57 and is currently the second best in a single season in program history.  

“If he [Brown II] is not the league MVP, I am never voting again,” Sprinkle said.
The Lobos put on a full-court press before the first half ended. The Aggies couldn’t seem to make a shot at the end of the first half except for one free throw from Martinez.  

End of the half score: 44-39 in favor of the Lobos.  

In the second half, Aggies took the lead back quickly at 45-44 with 18:18 left on the clock.  

Lobos head coach Richard Pitino was smart with his timeouts, calling them whenever the Aggies got on a roll. It calmed down the crowd to get something going for his team.  

Brown II drained a three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left on the clock to put the Aggies over the Lobos 87-84.  

“You want to take the last shot, and you want to take as much time as possible. But you want to makes sure you take a good shot,” Brown said. “You have nothing to do but shoot it.” 

Brown’s mom was in attendance at the game, and it was her first home game she had gone to watch her son.  

Seemingly all 10,270 people in the Spectrum cheered “Jaelen sucks” when he went to the line with 2.8 seconds left on the clock.  

House made his first but tried to bounce the ball off the backboard to get another bucket and missed.  

“We did not notice on the court that the ball did not hit the rim, so we let play continue until the game clock expired,” said Mike Littlewood, lead official, in a statement regarding the final foul shot made by House.  

The game ended with a scoreline of 87-85, and the tension sent the crowd onto the court, again chanting “Jaelen sucks.”  

“It was just meant to be that we would finish it the way we did here,” Sprinkle said. 

“No better way to go out, you know?” Brown said.