USU MBB: Shulga and Dorius lead Aggies past Air Force
LOGAN — Guard Max Shulga and center Trevin Dorius led the charge as Utah State Men’s Basketball defeated Air Force 80-65 on Valentine’s Day in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. The win snapped the Aggies’ first losing streak of the season.
“I’m really proud of the guys and their ability to refocus after two really hard losses where it could have gone the other direction,” head coach Ryan Odom said.
Dorius echoed his coach’s sentiment.
“We’ve shown time and time again that Aggie basketball played the right way can beat really, really good teams,” Dorius said. “We had two unfortunate losses within the last week and I think it shows a lot of composure on our team’s part that we come back and
With just over three minutes left in the contest, Shulga pulled up for a 3-pointer and nailed it. It was the fourth of five triples he made in the game. Guard Steven Ashworth, who was crouched down by the scorer’s table waiting to check in, stood up and applauded Shulga while students in the HURD waved a Ukrainian flag. It was just his night. Shulga kept making shot after shot and before he knew it, he set a career-high with 29 points on eight made shots.
“It’s something that we’ve always known Max is capable of,” Dorius said. “He has a lot of confidence and he’s probably one of the most skilled guys on the floor at any given time.”
Shulga tallied 29 points in the contest, including 15 from deep, while also grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out three assists.
Dorius also set a career-high as the big man took advantage of his size in the paint to score over the Falcons. He finished with 17 points and seven rebounds but was quick to point out that Utah State’s guards’ ability to shoot from distance and spread the floor makes his job a lot easier.
“I think I’m getting a lot more looks cause over the season they’ve shown that if they’re not guarding them outside or locking out on them we’re just going to make 21 threes,” Dorius said.
Dorius’ passion and confidence were evident as he punished defenders with dunks and tip-ins throughout the matchup.
“When things start to go your way, you kind of start feeling good about what you’re doing and things kind of went my way tonight,” Dorius said. “It was fun.”
Utah State never trailed in the contest, scoring the first bucket 49 seconds into the game. The Aggies started pulling away two minutes into the matchup with an 8-0 run, half of which came from Dorius.
The Falcons responded to whittle the Aggie lead down to 18-16 with a 9-2 run over three minutes. That’s when USU began to find success from the perimeter sinking four triples in the final 11 minutes of the first half. That along with stops on defense built the Aggie lead to 40-32 at halftime. Shulga, with 12 points, and Dorius, with seven points, led USU in the first half, and the pair continued their dominance in the second half.
While at times the Aggies looked sluggish in the second half with turnovers and a dip in their shooting percentage, they did enough to keep the Falcons at bay, but there was cause for concern as Utah State’s lead dropped to seven points with nine minutes left in the game.
That’s when Dorius and Shulga combined to score the Aggies’ next 11 points starting a change in momentum that led to a lead as large as 17 points on sequences of baskets and stops for USU. For Odom getting to 80 points was a big deal.
“The way they play offense it really tires you out,” Odom said. “It wears you out, and for us to be able to come away with 80 points and a chance at a couple more there was a good night for us.”
With the victory, Utah State achieves their 20th win of the season, making their record 20-7 and 9-5 in Mountain West play. The Aggies continue their homestand on Saturday as they host Nevada at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM.
Featured image by Heidi Bingham from the SDSU home game.