LOGAN – The eight games for Utah State leading up to its Wednesday showdown against Nevada were all decided by seven points or less — three of those contests ending with the teams within one basket of each other. That fact left the Aggies, although they are sitting at the top of the Mountain West, feeling unsatisfied with their performance over the last month.
“We were (like a) caged animal,” USU center Aubin Gateretse said. “We were very hungry.”
That animal was unleashed upon the unwitting Nevada Wolf Pack, resulting in a dominating 90-69 victory for the Aggies in their return to play after a week off, and following just their second loss of the season at UNLV.
Head coach Jerrod Calhoun spoke during the week about a few different key aspects of the game he wanted his team to improve upon. One of the most emphasized was forcing turnovers. The Aggies started out the year as one of the best turnover-forcing teams, with their opponents averaging 14.7 giveaways up until the first week of January. But in the last two games, USU only created 12 total turnovers. That had to change. And it did. Nevada had 12 turnovers at halftime and would finish with a season-worst 18.
That Mason ➡️ Drake connection is STRONG pic.twitter.com/P6gWB1PVNc
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 23, 2025
A significant factor in forcing those turnovers was a near whistle-to-whistle full court press. The Aggies went to it early and it confounded Nevada and led to the numerous mistakes. Calhoun said that while his assistant coaches Eric Haut and Mantoris Robinson have “a lot of say in the defense,” this was a strategy he really wanted to go with.
“We wanted to speed the game up. We wanted to really put a lot of pressure on Kobe Sanders. I think he’s a great player, but we wanted to fly around and have a lot of energy,” Calhoun said. “We were going to press from start to finish, and I though it really set the tempo and just created havoc.”
Sanders finished the game shooting 4 of 13 for 13 points and committed three turnovers. One of Nevada’s other key players, Nick Davidson, was responsible for six turnovers.
The drastic exploitation of the Wolf Pack’s generosity allowed Utah State to take a nine point halftime, 47-38 lead despite the visitors shooting 60 percent at the break. It seemed the only result of a Nevada possession was either a turnover or made shot. But it was a formula that worked since the Aggies were also hardly missing any shots and were far less giving to the Wolf Pack.
Utah State had a 57.6% shooting mark as the players walked into the locker room. Gateretse, who came off the bench for the first time this year as Karson Templin started in place of him, played a huge factor in that great offense. He had 12 of his eventual 16 points in the opening half. Utah State spotted a weakness in Nevada’s pick-and-roll defense, giving Gateretse several dunks off assists from USU’s point guards.
Can’t stop him, even if you foul him!@Aubinoooo pic.twitter.com/YF3UaAEQoF
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 23, 2025
“We watched film from the last game,” Gateretse said. “Props to my guards to make the right read. It’s right on them. I just got to set a good screen, roll hard and then they’re going to find me.”
Gateretse’s point total nearly matched his combined points over the last four games (20, with no single game higher than eight points). The coaching staff had challenged him and gotten a response.
“The greatest teacher is the bench,” Calhoun said. “Stew Morrill used to say, ‘I have the playing time right in my pocket.’ And kids know that. So (Gateretse) knows we were not happy with his performance the last five games. So he came out like he had a hair on fire, and just went, he rolled, he caught every ball, and he really ate up a lot of space in the paint. And he was a beast.”
Utah State hit a solid five 3-pointers in the first half, but it wouldn’t end up holding a candle to what they did in the second half. To put it short, 11 triples. By the end of the night the Aggies had 16 which is the most they’ve hit against a Division I opponent (17 against Westminster is the season high).
Every time Nevada tried to make some kind of push in the second half — be it an 8-2 run in the middle of the half to cut USU’s growing lead back down to size, or a 9-2 run that took a 22-point lead down to 15 — Utah State responded. The life the Wolf Pack kept trying to show kept getting stopped out by an endless barrage of Aggie 3-pointers.
The 8-2 run? Met with a 9-0 run consisting of two Tucker Anderson 3-pointers and one from Mason Falslev. This burst from the Aggies forced a timeout from Nevada head coach Steve Alford with Calhoun walking onto the court and actively pumping up the crowd as his team gathered by the bench. Nevada’s 9-2 run met a similar fate, with Dexter Akanno and Ian Martinez each hit a triple for a 6-0 run to re-establish the 20-point lead for USU.
Martinez and Akanno were the two biggest factors in the 3-point rainstorm. Both set or tied their season-high in 3-pointers with Martinez going 7 of 9 (matching his performance from distance against Westminster) and Akanno making 5 of 7.
THE THREE. THE BLOCK. THE THREE. @IanJumaine is HIM‼️ pic.twitter.com/uvbe3DLzzd
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 23, 2025
The late game didn’t treat Utah State perfectly, despite building a lead as high as 24 points. Karson Templin went down with an ankle injury, landing awkwardly after challenging for a rebound. He didn’t return to the game, spending the rest of the time on the bench with ice taped to his right ankle. Aside from that setback, though, not much could spoil the Aggies’ parade to victory.
With the win, Utah State moves closer to a tie with New Mexico for first place. Both teams have just one loss in conference play, but the Lobos sit at 8-1 with Utah State 7-1. The Aggies will take on Air Force in Colorado Springs on Saturday. The Falcons nearly took down San Diego State on Wednesday, pushing the Aztecs to overtime but eventually falling 77-76.
