USU MBB: Aggies survive second-half surge, defeat Air Force for first conference road win

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Utah State Men’s Basketball defeated Air Force 77-65 to improve to 13-2 and 2-0 in conference play on Tuesday night.

After being upset by the Falcons just over a year ago on the road, the Aggies looked to avenge that loss and keep their perfect conference record alive.

That vengeful attitude was shown in the first half of the game. 

Utah State opened the half leading the Falcons 18-9 in the first nine minutes of the game, backed by a dominant presence in the paint. 16 of the 18 points scored came from down low with the other two coming from the free-throw line.

It wasn’t just scoring in the paint that was dominant for the Aggies. They had seven offensive rebounds in the first half which allowed the Aggies to drop 11 second-chance points. 

At the end of the first half, the Aggies held a 44-28 lead with 32 of the 44 points coming from inside the paint. 

Not only was that points in the paint advantage drastic — Utah State’s seven offensive rebounds in the first half equaled the total amount of rebounds for Air Force.

“A lot of excitement throughout the game and our guys played really well in that first half,” head coach Ryan Odom said.

In what seems to be a trend this season, the Aggies failed to maintain their momentum in the second half and allowed Air Force to come storming back.

The Falcons made five 3-pointers in the second half — with three of them coming within four minutes of each other — while making 15-33 from the field, good for 45.5%. This allowed the Falcons to put the Aggies in panic mode.

“You can never relax. The Mountain West is a real league. This could be anyone’s game any single night,” forward Taylor Funk said. “We grinded it out and I am proud of every single one of us. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

While the Aggies managed a lead the entirety of the second half, the Falcons were able to get USU’s lead down to seven with just over 10 minutes to go. Utah State failed to make a basket in the final 8:39 of the game, but thanks to free throws, the Aggies still managed to score 15 points across those final eight and a half minutes. As a team, USU was 21-27 from the free-throw line, good for 78%. 

Utah State shot 6-20 in the second half with four of the shots coming from beyond the arc, only scoring 33 points in the second half with 17 of them coming from the free-throw line. 

Guard Steven Ashworth scored 15 points off the bench, including a tally of 6-7 from the free throw line, while grabbing a career-high eight rebounds.

Funk led the Aggies in scoring with 16 points shooting 6-11 from the field. After averaging just 8.3 points a game across his last six games, Funk credited his mental game for not worrying about past shooting slip-ups. 

“It happens to everyone but no confidence was ever dropped. I think every shot is going in,” Funk said. “I don’t think about it too much and never once said or thought I was in a drought or cold. If you change your mind you can walk into every shot confident.”

Odom lifted his support for Funk.

“Taylor is confident in himself which is the most important thing. You are going to have good games and bad games,” Odom said. “Humility is about not letting the bad games make you think less of yourself. He gets it. He understands it.”

As a team, Utah State shot 25-49 from the field (51%) and 6-12 from the arc. 

The Aggies out-rebounded the Falcons 37-25 and finished with nine offensive rebounds in the contest.

Utah State will travel to Boise, Idaho to take on the Broncos on Saturday, Jan. 7. The game will tip off at 4:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM and Fox Sports 1.

Featured image by Phil Weber from the Weber State game.