LOGAN – Utah State’s Saturday night win in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum was yet another lesson that wins in conference play hardly ever come easy. The Aggies trailed by as much as 17 points to visiting Fresno State before a middle-of-the-game surge by USU gave it the lead and enough of a cushion to outlast the Bulldogs for an 89-83 victory.
The Bulldogs walked onto the court as 23-point underdogs and perhaps deservedly so, with their 4-10 record and some pretty shaky shooting numbers. Fresno State ranked 348th in field goal percentage (40%), 305th in 3-point percentage (31%) and 311th in free throw percentage (67%).
But you wouldn’t have expected that by the way Fresno State shot the ball in the first half. At the break, the Bulldogs had made 52 percent of their shots overall, 46 percent of their 3-pointers and 75 percent of free throw attempts.
“I was a little concerned with with this game,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Five days on the road, back-to-back-to-back wins on the road, a little fatigue. It was tough, but we found a way to win. Proud of the guys, but certainly wasn’t our best outing to say the least.”
Fresno State used its suddenly high-powered offense to jump ahead 30-13 in the first half. Utah State made just 6 of its first 20 field goal attempts for another of its slow starts to a game.
Calhoun spent virtually the entire half desperately searching for ways to invigorate his team. He nearly constantly subbed players in and out, searching for a good lineup. And after a no-call from the referees on what looked like a travel by Fresno State, Calhoun received a technical foul which he said was a deliberate move on his part.
“Didn’t do any good,” Calhoun said. “I was trying to motivate our guys. I think I’ve gotten four in my entire career. So that’s one of four you saw. I usually am not like that but I just could not get any any energy out of our group. I thought that might fire him up. That didn’t work.”
The lineup changes and technical fouls may not have spurred the Aggies, but eventually they did find their groove, much like in many other games in which they’ve rallied. After going behind by 17, Utah State closed out the half with a quality run of play, going into halftime down just three points, 42-39.
“We’ve been that position before at San Diego State. So we knew we could battle back,” USU forward Karson Templin said. “We have tough guys, but we got to be better in the first half we got like get off to better starts That’s what it comes down to.”
The men most behind this late-half run — and much of USU’s success all night — were Dexter Akanno, Drake Allen. Akanno scored eight of his total 13 points in the final four minutes of the first half, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and a late layup. Allen had a pair of assists late in the half, the beginnings of what would eventually be 11 assists which he paired with 11 points.
“(Allen) and Dex won the game night,” Calhoun said. “Those two kids were tremendous.”
Templin earned his keep as much as Akanno and Allen did, though most of the damage he inflicted came in the second half. Templin had 12 of his team-leading 18 points in the second frame, and he added 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. It was also Templin’s layup with 14:38 left in the game that gave Utah State its first lead of the night, 55-54.
The Aggies nearly ran away into the evening after taking that lead. Templin continued to pour it on, including a 3-pointer to put Utah State up six points with Akanno nearly bringing the house down with a poster dunk that put USU up 10 points.
Dexter – 1
Rim – 0🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/Uj3gCVvyPJ
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 5, 2025
“I’ve seen him do that before, but I haven’t seen him do it in-game yet,” Templin said. “That was unbelievable. Dex got up on that one, just crazy.”
Utah State’s lead grew to as much as 14 points with six minutes left in the game. But that’s where, once again, the Aggies had to learn (nearly the hard way) that closing out games doesn’t come easily.
Fresno State went on runs of 6-0 and 7-0 to give the Aggies a proper scare. With 16 seconds left in the game, the Bulldogs were within one score, 86-83. Alex Crawford game USU fits in the second half as he made all but one of his nine attempts in the latter 20 minutes. He finished the game with 26 points, including several highlight plays of his own.
One wrong move could have ended the night for Utah State. Luckily for them, things didn’t continue down the wrong path. Ian Martinez iced the game with a pair of late free throws and the Aggies got one final stop to secure victory in the closing seconds.
The mood around this win was not a very positive one. Heads hung a little lower than normal in the post-game press conference, especially considering this was after a win. Calhoun put blame on himself for not getting more urgency from the team. He tried to, including using last year’s struggles from Utah State against this same Fresno State program. The Aggies went to overtime twice against the Bulldogs, and required heroics from Darius Brown multiple times.
“We talked about urgency, but it’s like, I couldn’t get it out of them. So blame myself,” Calhoun said. “You’re 14-1 and you’re mad, that’s kind of a childish behavior, right? But you can’t be satisfied. And that’s kind of how I live my life, in survival mode. And I’ve got to motivate these guys tomorrow to be better. Tonight was the first night it felt like I was coaching effort. And I haven’t had to do that in 15 games.”
Utah State’s resolve to not have an ugly win like this will soon be tested as the Aggies hit the road again to take on San Jose State on Tuesday. The Spartans are struggling almost as much as Fresno State, with a 7-9 record and a loss on Saturday to UNLV.
