Men’s basketball clinches win at the Delta Center

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State men’s basketball (11-1, 0-0 MW) defeated San Francisco (8-4, 0-0 WCC) on Saturday afternoon on the Jazz’s home court in Salt Lake City.

USU came into the matchup on an eight-game win streak, ranking 31st in the NET as of Dec. 13 and leading the nation in eight wins shooting 50 percent or better from the field this season. 

While struggling offensively for most of the game, head coach Danny Sprinkle attributed the struggles to their short practice week because of finals and their successes to the unselfishness of the team. 

“Heck of an effort by our guys. To shoot 30% and 9% from three and to still beat a really good San Francisco team, you know, defensively that’s probably the best team we’ve played and we told our guys before the game. I knew it’d be a struggle, I didn’t know it would be that hard to score. We’ve got to clean up those segments but proud of our toughness win, grimy gritty win and that’s how we have to do it.

USU took the tip-off and attacked the basket, but San Francisco claimed the game’s first points.

A slow start kept scores close for the first section of the half.

USU trailed behind 6-9 with 13:00 left after its 3:58 scoring drought and going 0-5 in shots taken.

USF had a drought of their own for 2:27 before making a steal giving them an open slam dunk by forward Jonathan Mogbo.

Junior wing Great Osobor broke the pattern switch with a dunk at 9:52 left. USU junior forward Kalifa Sakho kept the momentum with a steal and a run down court for a dunk of his own. 

Down to seven minutes in the first half, the scores were all tied up before USF took a five-point lead. The Dons went 7 of 7 while USU went 1-8 as minutes ran out. 

USU made it a two-point game with 20 seconds left but broke for the half down 25-30.

USF dictated the first half as the Aggies struggled to work offensively going 2-10 in three-pointers. 

HALFTIME STATS:

USU                      USF

FG 11-26              FG 9-30

3PT 2-10             3PT 2-12

FT 6-8                  FT 5-7

The Aggies took hold of the second half scoring two but struggled to keep the momentum. Even with four turnovers from USF, USU failed to score off of the opportunities. 

Picking it up with 13:00 left on the clock, the Aggies brought it within one after a layup by sophomore center Isaac Johnson. 

USU took the lead for the first time in the second half after Johnson successfully took two shots on a foul. With 12:41 left, USF trailed 36-37.

USU’s 10-0 run over 1:55 brought them up to a five-point advantage where they held the lead until the Aggies’ four turnovers gave USF the lead again. The Dons kept their lead until scores tied 50-50 with 1:50 left in the game.

Sakho took a layup for the lead with one minute left. In the final seconds, the Dons made a three-pointer gaining the lead but the Aggies took it right back. After graduate guard Darius Brown missed a jumper, hands bounced it back in on the rebound leaving them up by one with 15 seconds remaining.

USF took two chances at the basket but USU proved victorious winning 54-53.

USU forced 17 USF turnovers, scoring 18 points off those turnovers which Sprinkle believes has made the difference in his defensive focused gameplan. 

FINAL STATS:

USU                                USF

FG 16-53 (30%)           FG 21-52 (40%)

3PT 2-21 (10%)            3F 5-20 (25%)

FT 20-27 (74%)            FT 6-10 (60%)

REB 38                          REB 34

Men’s basketball will next face East Tennessee State at home on Dec. 22 before breaking until the new year.