Utah State took care of business against an Air Force team that the Aggies dwarfed on paper. USU didn’t overlook the lowly Falcons and laid down a 37-point beatdown, 99-62, in Clune Arena on Tuesday evening. The 99 points is the most scored by Utah State against Air Force in the 37 games of that series.
The Aggies were favored by 21 points going into the game by both computer prediction models and the Vegas spread. But in previous games with similar spreads Utah State underperformed. Five other times they’ve been favored by 15 or more points (Weber State, UTEP, Montana State, Fresno State, San Jose State) but only beat those expectations once, even going to overtime against a Montana State team the Aggies were supposed to beat by 17 points.
No such lackluster effort was to be found, even though head coach Jerrod Calhoun opted for a more lax preparation for this game. He gave the players Sunday off, following an 18-point win over San Jose State, giving the athletes a one-day prep on Monday before the contest on Tuesday.
“I was nervous. Sometimes you’re nervous doing that,” Calhoun said of his decision.
Calhoun’s fears didn’t really even come close to being realized as Utah State jumped out of the gate with a 17-point lead less than eight minutes into the game. Air Force committed six turnovers in that span, stifling their offense and while fueling Utah State’s. The Aggies benefitted from the “fresh minds, fresh legs” that Calhoun sought in giving his players the day off.
Adlan Elamin played a key role in that early scoring burst. The true freshman forward scored 13 points on the evening, 11 of those coming in the first half. He hit a corner 3-pointer and also had several finishes at the rim to push him into double-digit scoring for the third time this season.
“That was just really my teammates just finding me and getting me going,” Elamin said. It was a couple of lobs. It was Mason (Falslev) and MJ (Collins) just finding me on the cuts and stuff like that. So it was just all credit to my teammates, really.”
While Elamin got his scoring going early, no one player dominated throughout the entire game, save for perhaps Collins who scored a team-high 20 points (his eighth 20-point game of the season). All 12 active players on Utah State’s roster scored a basket in the game, led by Collins, Kolby King (15 points) Falslev (13) and Elamin.
A surprise scoring punch in the second half came from a former Air Force player, Luke Kearney. The junior spent his first two years at the Academy but transferred to Utah State this past offseason. He hasn’t seen much time on the court — and had only scored six points all year — but in seven minutes on Tuesday, Kearney shot 3-for-5 from the field and had 10 points. Calhoun handed out praise to Kearney, but also to Jordy Barnes and Tucker Anderson who have seen fewer minutes this season as well. Barnes played 14 minutes and had three points plus an assist and rebound with Anderson played 13 minutes, also scoring three points and securing three rebounds.
“Luke and Jordy and Tuck, these kids worked their tail off, they’re on the borderline top 25 team, a very deep roster right now,” Calhoun said. “These kids could play at a lot of places. They sacrifice, they work hard every day. Luke comes in, plays eight minutes, gets 10 points. I have thoughts of him winning a game for us on a game-winner, so I still have a lot of confidence in him. And Tucker Anderson and Jordy Barnes, all these kids, they’re good players, but they’re even better teammates. So they were ready when their number was called tonight. I thought they played really good and played smart.”
Air Force had one point in the game where it showed fight and some measure of ability to stand up to the Aggies. The Falcons trailed by 19 points, 27-8, with eight minutes to go in the first half. They gradually shaved that down to as low as 11 points in in the early moments of the second half. But Utah State cooked up a 13-1 run that ended hopes of any further comeback, let alone a chance to stun the Aggies.
Utah State’s killer attitude in this game is something Calhoun had sought after following games against Fresno State and San Jose State where his team hadn’t fully lived up to their potential. He’d seen that in the preparation and performance in USU’s 42-point win over Colorado State. And at halftime, after the Aggies had let their lead slip slightly, Calhoun wanted to make sure his guys were as locked in as they were against the Rams.
“We just talked about being obsessed with the little things at halftime. Not scoreboard watching,” Calhoun said. “Be obsessed with details, possession by possession. The only way you can maximize your individual and full team potential is if you obsess about getting better and where you get better is in the details. And I thought the details were better in the second half. I thought we got a lot of good efforts from a lot of guys.”
This win sets up what will be a crucial matchup early in conference play as Utah State will head to Boise State (9-5, 1-2 MW) to take on the Broncos. It will be the second road Quad 1 or Quad 2 game of the season, the last such game ended in a 74-61 loss to South Florida which thus far in the Aggies’ only defeat this season.
