USU MBB: Aggies complete comeback to remain undefeated
LAS VEGAS — Utah State Men’s Basketball defeated Loyola Marymount 79-67, keeping its undefeated season alive at 8-0 at the Jack Jones Hoopfest held at a neutral site, Michelob ULTRA Arena, late Saturday night.
While the score may show a 12-point victory for the Aggies, it did not come easy.
Utah State has only trailed by as much as five points all season and only trailed at halftime once, which came against San Diego 31-30. In a game that tipped off at 11:03 p.m. MST, the Aggies got a lot more than what they were looking for.
LMU came out on fire against the Aggies leading 32-19 with over six minutes to go in the first half, giving Utah State their largest deficit in a game this season.
But USU would not go into the second half with a large deficit. They used a 10-1 run across the final six minutes to trail by only three heading into the second half.
“Really proud of the response our guys had. When you are down 13, if you want to try and get back in this thing or let it go and our guys fought right away,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “I was proud of the effort.”
In the first half, Utah State allowed guard Cam Shelton to score 23 points on 8-11 shooting to account for nearly 70% of the Lions’ first-half points.
“We have a saying every single time we get into halftime (it’s) ‘you can’t win a game at halftime,’” guard Steven Ashworth said. “You can’t lose a game at halftime. There were stretches where we weren’t playing Aggie basketball.”
When the second half came around, the Aggies were all business.
They held Shelton to just two points coming from the free throw line and 0-7 shooting in the second half to completely flip the script.
“It was an emphasis after the first half that he put on us. He was making some great plays with some step-back threes,” Ashworth said. “When guys can hit those shots it’s hard to guard. Instead of guarding him with one guy, we tried guarding him with five with a team defense that was more connected.”
Ashworth poured in 16 points shooting 3-5 from deep and converting on seven of his eight free throw attempts.
Midway through the second half, Utah State would use a 17-4 run, started by a thunderous slam by guard Sean Bairstow in an open lane, to overtake what once was a 13-point deficit.
While the Lions provided resistance getting the Aggie lead — taking it down from 13 to eight at 71-63 with just four minutes to go — Utah State’s advantage was too much for the Lions to mount a comeback of their own.
With the win, Utah State remains one of just seven undefeated teams left in college basketball. Three of the seven come from the Mountain West Conference with New Mexico and UNLV in addition to the Aggies.
Utah State is now 8-0 all-time versus LMU and improves to 4-0 against the West Coast Conference this season.
The Aggies only made four 3-pointers in the game, which comes as a shock considering Utah State ranks fourth in the country in threes made per game, but Odom was glad there were points to be found elsewhere.
“It is something we have to continue to cultivate and grow. We started to go to him — Sean Bairstow — to get him downhill around the basket. He and Max can really get downhill and get inside,” Odom said.
Utah State shot 25-31 from the free-throw line — good for 80.6%.
Guard Max Shulga impressed with 18 points, 11-13 from the free-throw line, five rebounds and four assists.
Bairstow scored 14 points on 7-11 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds and distributing the ball for six assists.
The Aggies will take on Westminster on Thursday, Dec. 15 before closing out their home non-conference schedule versus Weber State on Monday, Dec. 19. After that, USU will head to Honolulu to compete in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
Featured image by Sam Warner from the Utah Tech game.