Martinez, Utah State defeat Wyoming 71-67 in Laramie
Utah State Men’s Basketball found their way back into the win column on Tuesday night with a 71-67 victory over Wyoming. The Aggies were led by guard Ian Martinez, who led all scorers with 19 points.
With Utah State’s win over the Cowboys, they move to 20-3 on the year, marking the 34th time in program history USU has won 20 games in a season.
Wyoming missed the production from their leading scorer Obi Agbim on Tuesday, who was in concussion protocol for the matchup with the Aggies. Agbim has averaged nearly 18 points and four assists per game on the season, making him the second-leading scorer in the Mountain West Conference.
“Obviously, their best player was out, but same thing happened when they played New Mexico. Those other kids just stepped up, and they almost got us and New Mexico in this building. So, got to give them a lot of credit,” said Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun after the game. “We didn’t have it going again from three again, but we found a way to get to the free throw line and win ugly on the road, which is really hard to do. So, give our guys a lot of credit.”
Both teams got off to a sluggish start, scoring just 13 total points in the first six minutes. Utah State jumped out to a seven-point lead behind a pair of threes from Drake Allen with just over 13 minutes left in the half.
The Cowboys responded with a 9-2 run that tied the game at 15 with eight of those points coming in the paint. An and-1 from Aubin Gateretse gave the Aggies the lead again before four straight points in the paint for Wyoming gave them the lead with seven minutes left in the half.
The two squads traded leads for nearly five minutes before they found themselves tied at 28 with 2:10 to go before halftime. Four more points in the paint and a three gave Wyoming a seven-point lead just before the break.
With the last possession of the half, the Aggies were able to get a bucket from Dexter Akanno off an offensive rebound with under a second remaining. The Cowboys led 35-30 at the break after eight ties and nine lead changes, with each team leading by as many as seven during the half.
The Aggies did little to help themselves in the first half, turning the ball over an uncharacteristic eight times and making just two of 12 three-pointers. After their worst shooting night of the season came at home to the Lobos last Saturday, it looked like the shooting woes were here to stay as Aggie shooters were scoreless from deep outside of Allen’s two early threes.
Out of the half, the Aggies immediately ripped off a 15-2 run to take a 45-37 lead. During that stretch, Utah State got points out of five different players from inside, beyond the arc and at the free throw line.
“It was straight up just toughness. We just had to be the tougher team. We kind of came out the first half, you know — we really didn’t impose our will on them,” Martinez said on the halftime adjustment. “Second half, you know, we had some moments where we did, so that was like bottom line. It was just being the tougher team out there.”
“I just said, you know, we all are very should be very honored to put the Utah State jersey on, and then also, the name on the back of the jersey really means something,” Calhoun said. “I thought we were very careless in the first half. I didn’t think we had enough urgency, and I made them well aware of my feelings at halftime.”
Wyoming ended the Aggie run with a three that sparked a 7-0 run of their own and cut the USU lead to just one, 45-44. Utah State responded by going on a 9-2 run to give themselves an eight-point cushion, which led to a Wyoming timeout.
The Cowboys responded out of the timeout by scoring seven unanswered to again trim the margin to one for the fourth time since the Aggies retook the lead.
After the two teams traded a pair of free throws with seven minutes remaining, Utah State scored eight in a row during an over four-minute stretch to again lengthen their lead. In total, the Aggies held Wyoming without a field goal for nearly six minutes late in the half and led 64-58 with 1:12 remaining when the Cowboys eventually did hit another field goal.
The second half was full of runs for each team with Wyoming consistently responding when the Aggies looked to put the game out of reach.
“They kind of went on their runs — we went on our runs, and we’ve just got to do a better job, you know, putting the game away once we, you know, get on those nine zero runs or whatever it is and just put the game away,” Martinez said. “We have kind of struggled with that throughout the season, but good thing is, we’ve still got time to improve in that area.”
After a quick couple of baskets for the trailing Cowboys, they jumped into late-game foul mode down four with 39 seconds remaining. Timely free throws from the duo of Martinez and Mason Falslev, who made a combined 12 of 13 free throws on the night, kept Wyoming at bay, and the Aggies left Laramie with a victory.
Utah State’s shooting struggles kept up all night against the Cowboys, continuing the trend from their blowout loss against New Mexico last weekend. After the Aggies went just 2-12 from deep in the first half, the second-half game plan had a needed adjustment.
USU shot just six threes in the second half, with only one attempt coming in the final 11 minutes of the game.
“The sad part about New Mexico is we ran great offense. It was a great process, just bad result, right? Like, we got any shot we wanted to be honest with you,” Calhoun said. “For two, three days, when it sits and stews with you, as a coach, you know, you just – you’re going to draw more things to get the ball to the rim. So, we ran — we ran a lot of things in the middle of the floor to try to get guys downhill.”
The Aggies returned to playing small ball, taking fewer threes and getting the ball inside to account for their missing three-point shooting. It paid dividends for Utah State as they outscored Wyoming in the paint 38-36 and outrebounded them 36-32.
The Aggies continue their road trip on Friday as they travel to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs. The game will tip off at 8:00 pm Mountain Time on the Mountain West network.