LOGAN — Utah State fans got more basketball than they paid for and more excitement than perhaps they were expecting in a Saturday afternoon matchup with Montana State. The visiting Bobcats, whom the Aggies were favored to beat by nearly 20 points, pushed the game to overtime. And even in the final period, Montana State didn’t let the hosts rest until the clock had firmly hit zero and the scoreboard read 84-81 in favor of Utah State.
The dominance that Utah State displayed in its two blowout wins during the Charleston Classic simply wasn’t present when the team reconvened in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. A team that had out-rebounded their opponents 63-44 across two games last week, lost Saturday’s battle on the glass 43-37. And after ranking in the 99th percentile on field goal percentage at the rim, Utah State shot a season-worst 44% (14 of 32) on layups.
And although many other metrics for the Aggies were solid – such as having only 10 turnovers (tied for second-best mark on the season), shooting 47% from the field, 36% on 3-pointers and holding Montana State to 39% shooting – untimely spells of poor play nearly doomed the team.
The undeniable feeling of this game was that Utah State didn’t perform like Utah State.
“I don’t think we overlooked them, but our preparation’s got to be better,” Karson Templin said. “I think we’re a better team than (Montana State). They’re great team but we should we should have played better than what we did tonight.”
USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun was not exactly pleased with how his team played and tied the poor play to the team’s week of practice and mindset after a 6-0 start.
“We had three bad practices,” Calhoun said. “I think it was a lack of humility. Sometimes when, you know, things are going so great, there’s going to be hard times in games, and you kind of find out what you’re made of. But the important thing is hopefully our guys will listen a little bit better in huddles.”
Indications that this game would be tougher than expected came fairly early on. Utah State scored just two points in the first three minutes. And while the Aggies actually held the lead for most of those 180 seconds, 2-0, Montana State would eventuall go on a 10-0 run just before the under-12 media timeout to take a 12-7 lead.
Utah State settled in, though, re-taking the lead after a 10-2 run and would eventually push toward its largest lead of the half, seven points. The Aggies held that lead at a few points in the first half, 23-16, then later 33-26 and 35-28.
Those leads were mildly comfortable, but simply never lasted. Montana State never let the Aggies pull away further than one or two possessions the entire game.
Two Bobcats in particular gave the Aggies fits. The first was a familiar name, Davian Brown, the younger brother of former USU points guard Darius Brown. Much like his older brother had countless times, Davian was having a fantastic game in the Spectrum. He had 18 points on the night and made four 3-pointers. But even he wasn’t the high-scoring player for Montana State. That honor went to Patrick McMahon, who led all players on both sides with 26 points. The 6-foot-7 wing caused a lot of matchup issues as he hunted USU’s smaller guards to find post-up looks in the paint. The Aggies had to try and make adjustments to what McMahon was doing to their defense.
“We knew he likes to get to his right hand. We knew he likes to post guards,” Templin said of McMahon. “In the first half, we were kind of doubling from the wing. Second half, we started doubling from the baseline. I think that kind of slowed him down. But man, he’s a heck of a player. Credit to Pat, he gave us his best tonight.”
Utah State was not without its star performances. MJ Collins, who had averaged 21.0 points in the first six games of the season, exceeded even that high average, putting up 23 to lead USU’s scorers. Mason Falslev scored 17 but also added eight rebounds, five steals and two assists. He and Karson Templin tied for the team lead in rebounds as Templin also had eight boards and scored 15 points of his own.
With the starts from both sides roughly equaling out, every moment hung in the balance. In each second that passed, the threat of a Bobcats game-changing, lead-taking run sat well within the realm of possibility.
And in the final minute of the game, the nightmare scenario nearly came to fruition.
Montana State had not led since 14-12 with just over 11 minutes to go in the first half, and only tied the game once (55-all with seven to play). The Aggies had (almost) always led in (nearly) every second since the mid-way point of the first half. But with 53 seconds to go, Calvin Holden hit a 3-pointer that capped an 8-0 Bobcats run and gave the visiting side a 69-67 lead.
Collins would make the necessary play for Utah State, getting to the free-throw line and sinking both attempts to tie the game up. And while both teams would get a possession, neither got a clean shot. Montana State turned it over in the corner and Mason Falslev stumbled as he tried to spin to the basket. He threw up a desperate attempt while still kneeling on the ground and the game clock hit zero before anything else could happen (including Templin’s dunk upon grabbing Falslev’s wayward shot/maybe pass).
That last play from the Aggies could have avoided overtime, but Calhoun said his star guard didn’t make the right read, though he ultimately praised Falslev, and Templin, whom Calhoun said “willed us” to a win.
Utah State’s victory would have to come in overtime, though, and though mistakes were made on the final play of regulation, there weren’t as many in overtime.There wa a brief swapping of the lead, but Utah State went on a 6-0 run to take a five-point lead, 78-73, with just 33 seconds to play.
And yet, even in that moment, though, the Bobcats refused to go away.
Jed Miller, who had started the game shooting 1 of 5 from three, made a tightly contested triple to make it a two-point game. Drake Allen hit a pair of free throws to bring it back to four, but Miller his another insanly contested 3-pointer over Collins to make it a one-point game. Two more Aggie free throws made it a three-point game, and with just three seconds on the clock at that stage, Utah State was able to strategically foul Miller to make him shoot two free throws instead of another 3-pointer and that helped seal the game.
