LOGAN – An historic win from the Aggies featured an almost-as-historic individual performance Saturday afternoon. As Utah State closed out the final minutes of its 88-67 victory over South Florida, which put USU at 10-0 for the first time ever in program history, Mason Falslev nearly put himself in the history books as well. He ended the night with 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, just shy of what would have been the fourth triple-double in USU history.
Falslev first got wind of how close he was in the under four-minute timeout of the second half. At the time he had 25 points, eight assists and eight boards.
“(Jaxon Smith) came up to me and he’s like, ‘Dude, you have eight and eight,'” Falslev recalled. “And I was like, ‘Really?’ I had no idea. I didn’t think I had that many rebounds.”
Though the Aggies pushed their lead to 21 points in the closing minutes, head coach Jerrod Calhoun said he left Falslev in the game on purpose because he knew he was so close to the triple-double. With one minute left, Calhoun sent in most of his backups, including Jaxon Smith and Isaac Davis who hadn’t played yet in the game. Falslev thought he was being subbed out too, but was informed he was staying in.
“I took a lot of grief my first couple years at Fairmont State with some of the older fans that we had when I would leave guys in,” Calhoun said. “But we ended up with, like, most points in a game by a single player. We ended up with most assists in a game by a single player — this all at the division two I was at. I’m a players coach I believe in rewarding hard work and the players. Mason had, you know, 27, nine and nine. I mean, give him a chance to get one more.”
Falslev didn’t quite manage to get the final rebound or assists. USF’s final missed shot bounced out of Falslev’s reach and there just wasn’t enough time to get one final assist and maintin the unwritten rules about not attempting more shots than you have to when up big in the final minute.
For all the talk during and after the game about Falslev’s individual merits, Utah State as a team had a stellar game, overall. The Aggies had 27 assists on 32 made shots, including 16 assists on 17 makes in the second half (that single unassisted make coming with just 48 seconds left in the game).
Team defense played a huge role too. Utah State faced tough matchups in the forms of shifty scoring points guard Jayden Reid and 6-foot-11, 275-pound center Jamille Reynolds. That duo has averaged a combined 25.1 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists on the season. On Saturday they combined to shoot 6 of 14 from the field with only 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and committed seven turnovers. Reynolds also got in foul trouble in the first half which shortened his time on the court.
Most of the credit for slowing down the big-man, Reynolds, went to Aubin Gateretse and Karson Templin, who drew the defensive matchup.
“Aubin and Karson Templin did a great job,” Calhoun said. “Karson has played (with) incredible force. Aubin had a great game tonight. I’m really, really proud of him. Happy for him. We challenged him. I said, these guys are physical. (Reynolds) is 6-11, 285 pounds. So when he was going to catch the ball, he was going to see four hands at all times, not two. We were going to make it really, really hard on him.”
Not only did Gateretse and Templin put in a top-tier defensive performance, they also impacted the game on offense. Each of them scored in double figures, 12 for Templin and 11 for Gateretse, and combined for six offensive rebounds. Ian Martinez was the one other Aggie to reach double digit scoring as he had 15.
As much as there are numerous players that deserve high credit for their impact, it all seems to come back to Falslev when looking at the game. After all, it was his scoring — specifically outside shooting — that helped the Aggies overcome what was actually another slow start to a game. They missed eight of their first nine shots and were trailing 5-0 early on. But it was a Falslev 3-pointer early in the game that began to pull the Aggies out of a five-point deficit in the early minute of the game
Later in the half Falslev would again make hit the mark from distance, but this time push the Aggie lead to the limit in the first half. He hit back-to-back triples, then a pair of free throws, which extended what was a 23-19 lead to 31-21, the first double-digit advantage of the night.
Mason is pretty good at basketball.@mason_falslev #AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/fcd5ZT2RZ2
β USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) December 14, 2024
By the 3:27 mark of the first half, Utah State extended its lead to 14 points, bringing the crowd to its peak excitement at the display from the Aggies. But for those remaining minutes, South Florida stole the show back. Throughout that run was the Aggies simply getting tired. There wasn’t a whistle that stopped the game from the five-minute mark all the way until 44 seconds left in the half. That’s zero stops in the game, not for out of bounds, free throws or the usual under four minute media timeout, which nearly didn’t occur because of the lack of pauses in the game.
“We got tired,” Calhoun said of that stretch. “I should have called a timeout. We had like three empty possessions. So partly it’s on me.”
Utah State may have lost the final four minutes of the half, the first part of what many coaches will focus on as the “middle eight” (the final four minutes of the first half and first four of the second), but the second part could still be fought over. The Aggies went on an immediate 4-0 run to start the second half, pushing the lead back to 10 points. And while USF were able to chip away at that a couple of times, bringing the lead back down to seven a couple of times, that quick push stabilized USU’s lead.
Those stabilizing minutes paved the way for another middle-of-the-half push from the Aggies. The biggest push was a 10-0 run that not only exemplified the excellent team ball movement and overall offensive dominance from the team, but also ensured they kept control of the game the rest of the way. This run spanned just under three minutes and featured five layups. All assisted. Two were on fast breaks. Utah State got to the rim at will and then forced turnovers to create easy buckets. Falslev and Martinez combined for two of the layups and four of the assists.
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β USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) December 14, 2024
After that 10-0 run, the lead never dipped below 12 points the rest of the game.
The historic nature of the 10-0 start from these Aggies isn’t lost on the players or coaches, especially to a Cache Valley native like Falslev.
“I grew up watching the Aggies and that’s something I can hold on to forever,” Falslev said. “Look back and say I was part of the best start in Utah State history. It’s pretty cool.”
But this 10-0 start is also a factor of how the Aggies haven’t made it part of their identity. They know what they’ve accomplished and are justifiably proud, but it’s not who they are.
“We never talked about making history. That was never talked about all week,” Calhoun said. “Certainly they have social media and are reading what you guys are writing and people are tweeting. But it’s about getting better each day. It’s about enjoying the process. The outcomes will come if you really take the process to heart and take the information. And I thought they did as good as job all year as really processing what we were trying to tell them as a coaching staff and carrying out that game plan. And you think about all the programs or all the teams in this program. The number of coaches, the number of All-Americans. All the guys, NCAA tournament teams, not one has ever started 10 -0. So it’s a test of we over me. It’s not one guy doing it. It’s not one coach doing it. It’s everybody pushing in the same direction. And I think that’s what makes us different.”
The undefeated run will be put to the test next when Utah State hosts the currently 8-2 UC San Diego Tritons on Tuesday evening.
