As the Aggies advanced the ball up the court with 34 seconds to play in just their second game of the season, they were in near free-fall. Just three short minutes ago they led VCU by 13, a further eight minutes before that Utah State had been up 18. The good ‘ol fashioned ESPN odds of winning calculator was spitting out chances north of 99 percent for an Aggie victory.
But as the clock ticked under a half-minute, the score sat tied 76-all. VCU had surged back, outscoring the Aggies 14-1 in the previous few minutes to turn a disaster of an outing for the Rams into a chance for what at one point seemed like impossible victory.
USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun had called his final timeout of regulation in the moment before this play, and drew up a play looking for one of his best playmakers to go out there and make something happen. MJ Collins had eclipsed 20 points already by this stage, leading the way in scoring, with Mason Falslev only a few points behind him at 18. There were options for the Aggies on that play.
“The initial plan was to get someone getting downhill,” USU guard Drake Allen said. “Tie game, you want to get something at the rim, try to maybe get a foul call. Just apply pressure.”
Collins wound up with the first good look of the possession, a 3-pointer on the left wing, but bricked it. It was then that one of the heroes of the night, Garry Clark, made his most notable contribution. He scooped up the wayward 3-pointer and laid it up and into the bucket for two go-ahead points.
GARRY. CLARK. 🥶🥶🥶#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/RF93Z5raP3
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) November 8, 2025
That rebound was Clark’s 14th of the night, and the layup put him at 11 points for the evening which gave him his second double-double in as many games (he had 12 points, 11 rebounds on Monday vs Westminster).
“Garry rebounded his butt off all night,” Allen said. “Fourteen rebounds and (the last one) was the biggest one of the night. He battled. We talk about winning the fight and and he won the fight tonight. Every single time he was in the paint, he won the fight.”
Utah State’s fight wasn’t quite done as Clark’s go-ahead layup came with 15 seconds still on the clock. VCU would get the ball and a chance to tie, or perhaps even take the lead, right before time expired. The Aggies wound up fouling Tyrell Ward with four seconds left. And as he went to the line, the weight of those free throws — with a trip to overtime at stake — were weighed down even more by the fact that VCU had shot just 58% from the charity strip so far. Ward himself was 3-for-6 on his attempts.
And the pressure seemingly got to the junior wing as he bricked his first of two freebies.
Ward’s second free throw went in, but with the chance to tie gone, all USU had to do was inbound the ball and sink a pair of free throws. Collins did exactly that, fielding the inbound pass safely, taking the foul from VCU and calmly sinking his pair of free throws to give him a game-high 22 points. And, much more importantly, it handed USU an 80-77 lead, which became the final score three seconds later.
Calhoun, for his part, noted that above all the big takeaways is his side got the victory.
“Obviously, a rollercoaster of a game. You won’t be involved in too many of those,” Calhoun said. “The important thing is you won. These are the games you’re worried about this early in the season. We knew VCU was going to be relentless. We knew their pressure was going to be real. I thought the last eight to ten minutes, they were just relentless in their pursuit of the basketball.”
One thing Calhoun harped on over and over in the offseason was how much his team was turning over the ball. And that popped up in this game. USU had 18 turnovers which VCU turned into 19 points. Perhaps more notably is that 15 of those points-off-turnovers came in the second half.
“We had a lot of turnovers. That was my biggest fear of the whole week,” Calhoun said.
Aside from the turnovers, and the last last 11-ish minutes in general, Utah State played relatively flawlessly. At the 11-minute mark, Utah State had made 24 of 40 field goal attempts. VCU, at that same point of the game, was just 16 of 46 and on the night, overall, turned the ball over 19 times. Everything was turning up roses for the Aggies. But those final 8-11 minutes were not as rosy. VCU got hot, getting an injection of offense by getting to the free throw line and then ending the game by making seven of its last nine field goal attempts. Utah State meanwhile, went cold, making just four of its last 18 attempts from the field.
Collins provided what little scoring the Aggies could muster in that time period. As the Rams were on a 10-4 run, Collins helped cool it off slightly with a layup with just under six minutes to go. And when VCU first shaved USU’s lead to single digits at the 4:31 mark (down to 71-62), Collins hit a floater in the paint and then a pair of free throws to push the advantage back to 13. His scoring ability was even more important when Falslev picked up his fourth foul with eight minutes left in the game. At that moment, Falslev was the leading scorer in the game and Collins stepped up to fill the void.
Calhoun re-emphasized what he’s said multiple times in recent press conferences about Collins’ scoring potential with the Aggies.
“We went to him when Mason was in foul trouble. We were really just trying to buy time from about eight, to almost three-and-a-half minutes,” Calhoun said. “So, you’re sitting there as a coach thinking, ‘how are we going to get the ball in the basket?’ We posted up and we got MJ on wide pin-downs. He did a great job of turning the corner. He made the two biggest free throws of the game. I’ve been saying it all along. He’s a kid that’s going to really benefit for playing for the Aggies. We’re going to give him freedom.”
Utah state is now 2-0 for a second year in a row under Calhoun. And, having passed the first major test of its non-conference schedule, will take the court next on Wednesday when the Aggies host fellow Beehive State school Weber State in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. The Wildcats began the year with an absurd 92-point victory over West Coast Baptist, a team from the NCCAA (the National Christian College Athletic Association, not be be confused with the NCAA). Weber State will play its second game of the year on Saturday at the University of Utah.
