Sean Bairstow. Photo by Lorene Hale
LOGAN – Utah State, playing in front of a standing-room-only student section decked out in the iconic colors of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum seats, got its biggest win of conference play Wednesday by downing New Mexico 84-73.
The Aggies jumped out to a 25-9 lead in the first half, riding a wave of good offense and some early New Mexico turnovers. Nearly all parties got involved in the scoring early. Steven Ashworth and Dan Akin each had six points within the first 10 minutes of the game. Taylor Funk and Sean Bairstow also had a couple buckets each.
“Our guys were ready,” USU head coach Ryan Odom said. “They weren’t tentative. They played a very balanced game in a lot of ways.”
Getting out to a huge lead – which by halftime was at 19 points, 46-27 – allowed the Aggies to maintain control, even though New Mexico went on multiple runs to cut down the near-20 point leads. And given the Lobos outscored USU 46-38 in the second half, Bairstow’s comment saying “that lead won us the game” rang very true.
USU placed a lot of emphasis on stopping New Mexico’s big three of Jamal Mashburn Jr., Jaelen House and Morris Udeze and the three struggled at times despite largely matching their season scoring averages. Mashburn scored 17 points but was 7-of-19 from the field. House was 6-of-14 for his 14 points. Udeze had the most efficient night of the bunch, going 7-of-13 for 16 points but it wasn’t a world-beating night that could make up for Mashburn and House’s inefficient nights.
“Certainly, one of the keys for us was holding our ground on defense and trying to make it as difficult as we possibly could on House, on Mashburn, on Udeze and do a good job on the others as well, because it doesn’t just stop there,” Odom said. “They talk about those three guys a lot but they have other players that are really good. We just wanted to make sure that we just did our best throughout the game.”
“They like to play those three-guard lineups and we have some bigger guys in me and Max,” Bairstow said. “That was definitely a lot of the game plan. We took Steven off the ball and put him off the ball a little bit more so we could put me and Max in the pick-and-rolls a little bit more which was effective for us.”
On offense the Aggies had one of their best halves of the season, scoring the 46 points on 53.6 percent shooting including 5-of-9 from three. And just like in the first few minutes, the points came from everywhere as four different Aggies had at least eight points at the halftime break.
That halftime lead didn’t mean anything though. Bigger leads have disappeared in smaller time periods and the Aggies knew it and the message at halftime reflected that. Bairstow said an emphasis of that halftime talk was that “we haven’t done anything yet.”
“That’s kind of been a staple that we’ve said since even our first scrimmage against Washington: that we haven’t done anything and we still haven’t,” Bairstow said.
New Mexico did make its run to prove just how fragile a big lead can potentially be. Luckily the Aggies didn’t allow the Lobos run to go too far before shutting it down. It was a 16-4 run that cut USU’s lead from 20 down to eight. A Bairstow jumper cut that scoring run short and gave USU a 62-52 lead but for the next 2:23 the Aggies didn’t score. But neither did the Lobos. The next points were the start of a near one-man show from Akin.
Starting at the 7:37 mark, Akin scored nine of the next 12 points for the Aggies and assisted on the Ashworth 3-pointer that accounted for the other points in that stretch. Those nine points were part of Akin’s 16 point, six rebound, five assist night. It also continued a great run of form for the England-born forward. Over the last four games Akin has averaged 16.8 points and 7.8 rebounds on 82.1 percent shooting.
“Really proud of the way that he’s playing right now,” Odom said of Akin.
Akin’s run helped USU re-establish control and build the lead comfortably back into double-digit territory. And by the end of the run there simply wasn’t enough time for the Lobos to catch up and erase the re-built lead.
Bairstow didn’t have as many one-man scoring runs, but he led the team in points – tying his career-high with 20 points – and hit numerous, tough key buckets to either extend Aggie runs or cut short New Mexico runs.
“I’m happy with it,” Bairstow said of his performance. “I was just playing basketball and not overthinking too much. Just playing and seeing what happens.”
“Sean was our player of the game,” Odom said. “He did a great job throughout.”
The win over the Lobos is the first win for Utah State against a conference opponent within the top five of the standings. Bairstow said it’s a win that “means a lot.”
“It shows that we belong like we have believed all season that we do,” Bairstow said. “Big statement win for us.”
Utah State’s next matchup will take them on the road again, this time to Colorado State. Much like the series with New Mexico, this will be the only time the Aggies face the Rams. It may be the right time to catch CSU as the team is currently on a four-game losing streak. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
