HONOLULU – Utah State rebounded from a frustrating loss on Friday, marked by a lackluster offense, by shooting 60.4 percent from the field (including 11-of-17 from three) in an 82-73 win over Washington State on Christmas Day.
The Aggies led by as much as 23 in the second half, rolling the Cougars in the third place game of the Hawaii Airlines Diamond Head Classic. Offense came much easier than it did in USU’s loss to SMU on Friday where the Aggies shot 37.5 percent from the field as a team.
“We have good shooters and we want to make sure that our guys were encouraged to take the right shots,” Utah State head coach Ryan Odom said. “I think our shot selection (against SMU), we were a little bit rushed and we can be better in that area. We watched a lot of film of that game that night, right after the game. And the guys took it to heart and were ready to play today.”
Utah State center Trevin Dorius – who tied his career-high with 12 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals – said the team has been working on taking their time on offense to get the right shots, echoing what Odom said about the team’s shots being rushed against SMU.
“Instead of just being rushed on everything, everything we were doing was about reading the defense and attacking,” Dorius said. I think it showed today that when we play together intelligently and in a smart way we can pull out a win like that.”
Most of the spectacular shooting came in the second half and it built on the lead Utah State manufactured in the first half. An 8-0 run early in the half took an 11-11 game into an eight-point Aggie lead. That 11-all score was the last time the game was tied or the lead changed. Washington State came within one possession, 21-18, but Utah State pulled ahead again and took a 42-29 lead.
Early in the second half the Aggies began to pull away with a 6-0 run to put them up 15 points, 56-41, Max Shulga capping off that quick burst of points with a cross-key floater. But Shulga appealed a little too much for a foul on his made basket and was assessed a technical foul. In the aftermath of that call Shulga was assessed a second and ejected from the game.
Washington State got four technical free throws plus the possession because of that sequence (and the Cougars wound up with five points on that trip down the floor, making the four free throws and then getting one more free throw off a shooting foul). It had the potential to spark a Cougars comeback. However, Utah State slammed the door on that possibility by going on a 17-5 run, included within was a 12-0 run.
“We were very fortunate that that didn’t impact the game in a negative way,” Odom said. “Our guys were very mature in that situation and they rallied around one another and continued to play.”
A huge part of USU’s dominance of the scoreboard in the second half came from a stretch of 10 straight made field goals that spanned roughly six minutes of game time. The Aggies made four 3-pointers, five layups/dunks and a mid-range jumper. It ballooned the lead to 76-53.
The offense was very, very balanced in terms of sharing the points. Three Aggies shared the team lead in points at 12 – Dorius, Steven Ashworth and Taylor Funk. Sean Bairstow and Shulga each had 11 points while Dan Akin had 10 to round out the six USU players to reach double figures.
Washington State’s biggest attempt at a comeback began with a little under nine minutes to play in the game. Utah State had just hit its peak lead of 23 points off an Ashworth 3-pointer when the Cougars began a 13-2 run that included a 9-0 burst. The Aggies were able to tank that run, though, partly through its already build lead and partly from a quick pair of buckets from Rylan Jones and Dan Akin that halted momentum and gave USU a 16-point lead with just over two minutes to play. Simply too little time for the Aggies to give up a lead that large.
With this win the Aggies finished non-conference play with an 11-2 record, the most wins in non-conference play by the team since going 14-2 in 2019-20. In the Odom era USU is now 21-8 in non-conference play.
Utah State will open its Mountain West schedule by hosting Fresno State on New Year’s Eve with a tip-off time of 12 p.m.
