Utah State suffered its first loss of the season on Thursday in a game that figures to be one of the more important non-conference games on the Aggie schedule. In the first true road game of the season, against a South Florida team ranked 78th in the NET, Utah State was buried 74-61.
“We got our ass kicked. I mean, let’s call it like it is. That was an old-fashioned ass-kicking every step of the way,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “We were outclassed, all 30 of us that are on this trip from start to finish.”
The first few minutes played out decently for the Aggies. They never led at any point in the game, but were within two points at the 14:25 mark of the first half with the score sitting at 11-9. But, from there, things went pretty quickly downhill. South Florida went on a 21-2 run spanning seven minutes of play. Utah State didn’t make a single field goal in that entire stretch of time. When Garry Clark finally ended the cruelly cold spell for the Aggies, they trailed 32-13 with 6:40 to play in the first half.
Heading into the game, Utah State ranked fairly high in a bunch of offensive categories like field goal percentage (ninth), points per game (35th) and offensive rating (35th) among others. But when it came time to back up those numbers, the Aggies came up short. They shot just 35.5% from the field, by far its worst mark of the season (next-worst was a still-solid 45.3%) and the 61 points scored is also a season-low by quite a ways (75 is the next-worst).
Sources of offense that have been bountiful for the Aggies dried up. Points in the paint? A 41.0 average on the season, only 28 on Saturday. Bench points? 28.5 prior to Saturday, just 17 on it. Similar story for fast break points, 15.2 season average and just six against the Bulls.
What little offense the Aggies did manage came from its two star players, Mason Falslev and MJ Collins. Falslev scored the first seven points of the game for USU and finished the night with 19 and Collins matched that total exactly. Aggies not named Falslev or Collins shot a combined 10-for-32 and tallied 23 total points.
Calhoun critiqued the play of both his bigs and his guards. He said that “we don’t have million-dollar bigs” and that the guards “didn’t impact the game whatsoever.” Looking at those groups specifically, Drake Allen scored four points and had a season-worst one assists (less than he had in a game where he got injured at halftime). Backup points guard Elijah Perryman fared only a little better. He had three points and team0leading five assists, but also led the team with three turnovers.
Utah State’s bigs were a virtual non-factor. Karson Templin scored zero points and had zero rebounds. Zach Keller came in for four minutes and his contributions added to a pair of turnovers on a couple offensive fouls. Clark did the most, scoring four points on 2 of 6 shooting with six rebounds. All three of USU’s bigs combined to shoot 2-for-10, score four points, grab six rebounds and turn the ball over four times. To contrast, South Florida’s starting big, Isaiyah Nelson, scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds by himself in 24 minutes of play.
Speaking of the Bulls, they had little trouble scoring, unlike their foes on the night. It started with their 3-point shooting and then transitioned to points inside the arc. USF peeled open the Utah State defense by hitting three quick triples in the first few minutes and then began attacking the rim where they ended up managing 26 points in the paint and 32 free-throw attempts. South Florida’s top offensive player, Joseph Pinion, was able to get going early and often, scoring 17 points, largely on his five made 3-pointers. Three other Bulls players reached double figures, including Nelson’s 11 and 10 apiece from Josh Omojafo and CJ Brown.
Probably the one positive thing that can be dug up from the game is that Utah State played evenly with South Florida in the second half. Count just the latter 20 minutes and the Aggies would consider it a solid night. They outscored USF 41-33, with many first-half trends reversed. USU shot 24% in the first half, 48% in the second. South Florida made an even 50% of its first-half attempts and only 37% in next frame.
“At a halftime, we just asked the guys, ‘What are we doing here? What do we want to try to accomplish?'” Calhoun said. “Break the game in really five segments, four minutes at a time and try to win those segments. We did that a few times in the second half.”
Utah State will have a little time to think about this loss, though not a ton. The Aggies will be back in action on Sunday where it will face Charlotte. It’ll be an easier team (ranked 184 in the NET) but another true road game.
