USU offense goes quiet, Aggies drop MW opener against AFA
Utah State men’s basketball opened Mountain West Conference play with a nail-biting 49-47 loss to the Air Force Academy on Wednesday.
The Aggies struggled offensively all afternoon, shooting just 33% from the floor and a brutal 1-19 from the 3-point line.
Justin Bean led the Aggies with 18 points and ten rebounds to record his ninth double-double of the season. Brandon Horvath had nine points and would tie Bean with ten rebounds.
Bean would be the only Aggie in double digits as Utah State fell well below its season point average of over 79 points per game.
“Obviously a disappointing overall performance for us as a group,” said coach Ryan Odom after the game. “Theme of that game was that I didn’t have them ready offensively to compete against their defense.”
Air Force’s strong defensive effort kept the Aggies off-balanced and uncomfortable throughout the game. Utah State has averaged almost ten made three-pointers per game before making only one against the Falcons. The one made triple came from R.J. Eytle- Rock with 2:26 in the first half.
“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole tonight,” Bean said about the game. “Credit to them; they made it tough for us and made us play hesitant.”
The Falcons got out to a quick start from beyond the arc, hitting three of their first four shots to start the game before going 5-24 the rest of the first half. After adjusting early, the Aggie defense settled in and gave the Falcons fits in return, and the two teams entered the locker room tied at 22.
Utah State scored first coming out of the break but only held the lead for 1:02 before Air Force took control the rest of the way. After trailing by as many as eight in the second half, the Aggies still had several chances to win late in the game. Their defense gave up zero field goals and forced two shot-clock violations in the final four minutes and 14 seconds.
The most significant missed opportunity came with 2:24 remaining in the game when Horvath had an open breakaway layup attempt swatted off the backboard by the Falcons’ Nikc Jackson.
Utah State will have until next Tuesday to regroup from the loss after their Saturday matchup with San Jose State was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Spartans program.