Utah State guard Josh Uduje (14) and Javon Jackson (22) leave the court after Utah State was beated by San Diego State 81-67 in an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
Judging by the early goings of Utah State’s road matchup at San Diego State, one would’ve thought the Aggies were well on their way to snapping a nine-game losing streak, spanning 25 years, in games at Viejas Arena. USU made six of its first eight shots, including going 3-of-5 on threes. They had just two turnovers in the first 11 minutes of the game. The Aztecs shot decently as well, but committed five turnovers in the first 11 minutes of the game, hamstringing their offense.
All of that added up to a solid 24-17 lead for the visiting Aggies with 9:25 left in the first half.
Unfortunately, the good times wouldn’t last, the great shooting vanished, and San Diego State took control, eventually taking home the W by an 81-67 final score.
The transition from hot to cold shooting happened rather quickly. Immediately after that 6-for-8 start, the Aggies missed five straight. Over the rest of the first half, they shot 7 of 22. For the entire game, USU ended up making 25-of-61 attempts (41 percent), good for the team’s fourth-worst single-game field goal percentage of the season.
“Tough stretch of shooting,” USU guard Darius Brown said. “I really don’t know what else to say about that. We’ll get back in the gym and we’ll be sure to hit those shots again.”
Unsurprisingly, San Diego State full advantage of the cold spell to flip its seven-point deficit to a six-point lead by halftime, 42-36. The Aggies had a chance to limit that deficit, but the Aztecs scored the final five points of the half, including a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
In previous games where the offense has gone cold, Utah State has relied on tough, physical defense to stay in the game (two of the three games where the Aggies shot worse than today were still wins) but a combination of San Diego State having one of its better jump-shooting nights and a few too many fouls led to the Aztecs overcoming anything the Aggies threw at them.
Per Synergy tracking data, the Aztecs have shot 37 percent on jump shots this season, but on Saturday they made 44 percent. The key culprits of this rise were not players USU anticipated hitting a lot of shots.
Jay Pal scored a season-high 16 points, Micah Parrish added 14 (his highest scoring total in a month) and Darrion Trammell scored 12 points (tie for his second-highest total of the year). Of particular note was the 3-point shooting of those three, plus Elijah Saunders. That quartet entered the night shooting a combined 29 percent on threes but made 7 of 13 attempts this afternoon.
“When those guys get threes, it’s a really hard to guard them,” Sprinkle said. “And they made a lot of shots from 15 feet and out, even some of those pull ups, even Trammell the last play [of the game]. They made those shots and those are shots we have to live with.”
Jaedon LeDee, the leading scorer on the season for the Aztecs, did have 16 points, but took 13 shots to get there and finished below his average of 20.1.
“It was the guys around [LeDee]. They were hitting shots. It’s simple as that,” Brown said.
When the Aztecs weren’t making more than their fair share of jump shots, they were drawing fouls in the paint. The Aggies were victims of both a few quick whistles but also a lack of smart physical play. San Diego State ended up with 28 free throw attempts as a result.
“We have to do a better job being physical without fouling,” Sprinkle said. “Sometimes it could be that false hustle, and we got to do a better job of positioning and just in walling up.”
In the middle part of the second half, the Aggies put together half the ingredients for a rally. They forced a suddenly hot-shooting SDSU team to miss seven shots in eight attempts and commit four turnovers in a five-minute span. Great work on defense but the offense’s cold shooting just wouldn’t let Utah State make a run. During that same span where the Aztecs went 1-for-8, the Aggies made 3 of 9 attempts and only outscored their opponent by two points.
Utah State drew within seven points with seven minutes left, but a 5-0 Aztec run over the next minute pushed the lead back to double-digits where it never returned.
The 14-point loss will sting, but the Aggies can still walk away with a few positives. They still got some solid individual performances — 17 points and seven rebounds from Great Osobor and 16 points, five rebounds from Mason Falslev. Isaac Johnson also put in a quality 26 minutes and was the only USU player with a positive plus-minus (+2 in his 26 minutes.
Most important of all the positives is that Utah State still holds first place in the conference, sitting in a tie with Boise State (though the Aggies hold a tiebreaker over the Broncos for now, so one could say USU holds sole possession of first place). And a chance to get back on the winning track is only three days away with a home meet-up with Nevada awaits the Aggies on Tuesday.
