As Utah State went into halftime, one of its leading scorers on the season, Ian Martinez, kept getting encouraging remarks from his teammates. They were meant to boost his confidence as Martinez attempted just two shots in the opening 20 minutes and missed both. A man with a scoring average of 17.0 points had zero by the middle of the game.
Perhaps not-so-coincidently, Utah State trailed Nevada 33-28 going into halftime.
The Aggies had actually started off the game red-hot, making 9 of their first 12 field goal attempts and taking a lead as large as eight points. Mason Falslev scored 10 of his eventual 14 points in the opening half, facilitating the early lead.
They mayor from 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃𝓉𝑜𝓌𝓃@mason_falslev pic.twitter.com/MHTHGTS3iV
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 1, 2025
“I kept saying guys. He’s carrying us. Literally would tell him that in the huddle,” said USu head coach Jerrod Calhoun. “And as I was substituting guys in, I said look at Mason’s effort man We gotta have that sort of effort rebounds assists just flying around. I couldn’t take him out of the game.”
But over the final 11 minutes of the half, Utah State made one field goal and were outscored 19-6. Martinez accounted for one of those misses in that span, and a couple of the turnovers that were part of USU’s first-half total of 10.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played worse in my life (than) in that first half,” Martinez said. “I played terrible.”
Calhoun had sat down with the star senior and given him a few extra minutes on the bench. He also had to have a good talking-to to the rest of the team that had allowed that lead to evaporate and hand momentum to the home team.
“We threw it all over the gym,” Calhoun said, referencing the 10 turnovers. “We were just really out of sorts.”
The script didn’t flip quickly, but things did begin to tip back toward the Aggies in the second half. Five minutes in, Utah State had evened things at 37-37 with Tucker Anderson finishing an and-one to force the tie. Deyton Albury then got an and-one as well to take the lead back (for good as it turned out).
After regaining the lead, Utah State clung to its advantage, seeing it go up to four and back down to just one. Then, at the 12:30 mark of the second half, Dexter Akanno hit a 3-pointer to give the Aggies a four-point lead and setting a moment in time. Over the final 12-and-a-half minutes of the game, only two Aggies would score points — Anderson and Martinez.
Despite the fact those two had combined for nine points so far that game, that ended up being a good thing.
Anderson immediately followed up Akanno’s three with a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer of his own (which boosted the USU advantage up to seven points). And that’s when Martinez took over.
Martinez had zero points in the first 33 minutes of the game, missed every shot he attempted and had more turnovers than assists. But none of that stopped him from becoming a one-man offense for seven minutes. Martinez scored 17 consecutive points for the Aggies, spanning almost exactly seven minutes of game time. No other USU player even attempted a field goal in the final 10:45 of the game. It was all Ian Martinez and his return to stardom.
“I guess it just kind of eventually came back to me,” Martinez said. “And thankfully I made the right plays at the end that helped the team come up.
Even as Nevada made its furious attempts at a rally late, Martinez kept scoring and keeping Utah State in front. When Xavier DuSell his a 3-pointer to cut USU’s lead to 58-56, Martinez hit a 3-pointer of his own.
That’s 11-straight Aggie points scored by @IanJumaine 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CPRaEnly62
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 1, 2025
Kobe Sanders converted an and-one to bring it to a two-point game again, so Martinez hit a layup off a baseline out of bounds. He then added a layup off a turnover-turned-fast-break to push USU’s lead back to six points.
MAKE IT 15-STRAIGHT FOR IAN! HE CAN NOT BE STOPPED!@IanJumaine pic.twitter.com/uZSwSH99iV
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 1, 2025
The final dagger in the heart of Lawlor wouldn’t be delivered by Martinez, but by Anderson, the only other Aggie to score late. He would hit a pair of free throws with five seconds left in the game to put USU up by five points and seal the eventual final score of 69-64.
Martinez’s dramatic revival steals the headlines, and potentially a future Player of the Week award from the Mountain West, but the win showcased the balanced nature of the Aggies (believe it or not about a team that had one player attempt a field goal in a 10-minute span). Martinez had 17 points, but Anderson added 16 of his own with Falslev scoring 14 and being the first-half engine (Falslev also had six rebounds, five steals and five assists to earn the all-around stat stuffer).
Anderson, in his 25 minutes of play, was +19 in the plus/minus, by far the best mark on the team. It adds to his legend after the previous outing where he hit a game-winning shot in USU’s win over SDSU.
“When he made that shot and those shots against San Diego State, you talk about a confidence boost,” Calhoun said. “He’s gonna get more and more minutes. I knew all along we need a guy like that to step up. he can be the X factor. (He’s) 6-9, makes threes, bounce it a little bit. Willing defender. And he went to the foul line with the game on the line. If he misses those now we’ve got to foul. He iced it with six seconds.”
Two other notable impacts came from Aubin Gateretse and Karson Templin. Neither made a field goal and only Templin scored (on a single free throw made) but were both active in the paint. Each grabbed five rebounds and combined for four blocks with Gateretse sending back a Sanders’ dunk attempt in style.
lol nice try @Aubinoooo pic.twitter.com/k5ino2BIxF
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 1, 2025
This victory closes out what will almost certainly be considered the toughest three-game stretch of the year. Utah State played three consecutive road games, all against Quad 1 opponents (top 75 in the NET rankings when playing on the road). The Aggies went 3-0 with wins over Saint Mary’s and San Diego State added to Tuesday’s victory over the Wolf Pack.
The most recent AP Top 25 Poll once again had the Aggies short of being ranked, being left in the cold of the “others receiving votes” for a seventh straight week. The lack of respect is something that seems to confuse Calhoun but isn’t being given much attention from the players.
“It’s funny that people think UC San Diego’s a bad loss,” Calhoun said. “It is ’cause (we) lost at home, but they’re a very, very good team. They’re top 70, 80, whatever it is in the country. They’re going to win 25, 26 games. They’re a Quad 2 (opponent). So I think our body of work is as good as anybody in the country. We’ve beat a lot of really good teams away from Logan.”
“To be honest, I couldn’t care less about outside stuff and the rankings. I care about the wins,” Martinez said. “We only care about the wins, take advantage of our games and just not losing any games that we’re not supposed to lose.”
Whether this now-completed 3-0 road stretch changes anyone’s mind is something that will have to wait until the next voting results are tallied on Monday. Until then, the Aggies will return home and host Fresno State in what will likely be a sold-out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Jan. 4.
