As Utah State and Tulane walked into the locker rooms for the halftime break in the opening Lowcountry bracket game of the Charleston Classic, nothing separated the teams. The score stood 40-40 after the first 20 minutes of college basketball. The two sides had gotten to those 40 points in very different ways. Tulane was raining down 3-pointers, making 7 of 14 attempts from distance, to help its offense along. Utah State scored 30 of its points in the paint, led by Mason Falslev who had scored nearly all of hits 14 first-half points at or near the rim. That the game was tied was certainly no disaster, but the Aggies were favored to win the game by double figures (-10.5 on the Vegas spread). Many of Utah State’s Mountain West peers have fallen victim to teams they were favored to win by wide margins. Not quite four days ago, the preseason conference favorite San Diego State lost in double-overtime at home to Troy. Guarantees weren’t going to fall into USU’s lap in Charleston. Utah State had done well to keep pace with the Green Wave’s red-hot first half; the Aggies shot 58% from the field themselves and had cooked