LOGAN — Utah State rallied and pulled away from San Diego State late in the second half to earn one of its most tough-minded victories of the Jerrod Calhoun era. The Aggies trailed by 11 in the first half and by seven in the middle of the second, but pulled off a 71-66 victory over the first-place team in the Mountain West.
There were a lot of things that didn’t go well for the Aggies, but they overcame them all — 18 turnovers, just 20 points combined from MJ Collins (12 points, on 3-of-14 shooting) and Mason Falslev (eight points on 3-for-7 shooting), a 3-point percentage of 23.1 and free throw perentage of 56.5.
“Really want to shout out our players,” Calhoun said. “To win this game, as ugly as we played offensively, I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of that. Where your two best players went 6 of 21. You had 18 turnovers, but the difference was we were the tougher team the last seven minutes of the game.”
The ugliness of the game began from the tip. Each side knew the stakes and knew the job they had to do, especially on defense. The result was both teams making just two of the combined first 14 attempts from the floor.
Whether at the rim, beyond the arc or anywhere in between, no quarter was given, no inch allowed by either defense.
“We knew that both teams play really good defense,” Utah State forward Karson Templin said. “Historically, San Diego State is one of the best defensive teams in the country. I feel like we’ve had a pretty good defense this year. We emphasize it a lot. So, we knew it wouldn’t be easy to score.”
The first shift in the tide of the game went in favor of San Diego State with a 10-2 that gave the Aztecs some breathing space. And they would build that gap further to an 11-point advantage, 29-18, with 3:38 left in the first half.
Then came Utah State’s first major rally.
In 3:38 after SDSU took that 11-point lead, the Aggies outscored the Aztecs 16-5, including a 9-0 run to close the half out. Templin made his presence known in a big way during this stretch, scoring seven points in that stretch alone.
Templin finished the game with a team-high 18 points, a mark that also set a new season high in scoring and tied his career high. Although not normally a volume scorer, that role fell on him thanks to how San Diego State gameplanned its defense for the Aggies.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this without my teammates,” Templin said. “Trust me to throw it inside. (San Diego State) were switching all game, so I had a lot of mismatches and opened things up for me. My team needed it tonight, so I delivered.”
Another unfamiliar role that fell to Templin was that of an outside shooter. The junior is usually good for maybe one attempt per game, or two per game, but his career 3-point percentage hasn’t always justified more attempts. But when the rest of his teammates started the game 0-for-11 from distance, Templin gave it his best go with a top-of-the-arc triple late in the first half and promptly buried it.
KT for 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/diAzS2V4qA
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 31, 2026
Three minutes later, Templin added a second 3-pointer to his tally, which added fuel to that 16-5 run to end the half.
“I don’t really think when I shoot,” Templin said. “If I see myself open, I shoot it. I don’t know if coach always likes that, but the team needed it.”
While that run brought the crowd to life and produced all kinds of momentum for the Aggies, halftime ended up quieting things down on all fronts. When the teams came back to the court, San Diego State again pressed Utah State and pulled ahead. At first by four or five points, but later by seven points.
SDSU’s largest lead of the second half came pretty much right at the 10-minute mark. A bad pass from Falslev was stolen by San Diego State forward Tae Simmons and taken the other way for a layup that put the Aztecs up 52-45.
While that lead wasn’t as large as the 11-point hole the Aggies faced in the first half, that seven-point lead felt more difficult to overcome with San Diego State finding its stride on offense, no matter what Utah State was throwing at them. Reese Dixon-Waters, who led all scorers with 19, was hitting incredibly tough shots over tight, contested defense, including a couple mid-range fadeaways and a 3-pointer in the corner with a man draped all over him.
“Our contest rate was really good,” Calhoun said. “The kid, Dixon-Waters, I mean, this guy’s making fadeaways from 15, 18 feet. Those are hard shots. He’s a smooth operator. Tremendous player.”
Added to that was USU’s own struggles. Falslev’s turnover with 10 minutes to go was Utah State’s 16th and Calhoun had had enough. The second-year Aggie coach called timeout and brought his players back to the bench to deliver a simple message.
Enough is enough.
“You’ve seen their pressure now. This is 30 minutes into the game. Like, what are we doing. Why are we giving the ball away?” Calhoun said about his talk with the team during that timeout. “Come on, guys, get to spacing. What’s our spacing concepts? The reason you turn the ball over, you don’t have good space. And you make bad reads. And we were sped up for a big part of the game.”
Ever the coachable team, the Aggies delivered. In the final 10 minutes of the game, Utah State committed just two turnovers.
As for that seven-point hole that had the HURD as nervous as it’d been all game, the Aggies erased it in a matter of 57 seconds. Two trips to the free throw line from Templin and Falslev plus an and-one layup from Drake Allen put Utah State on a 7-0 run.
San Diego State responded by getting two free throws of its own from forward Miles Heide. But Utah State was done letting the Aztecs dictate the flow of the game. On the possession right SDSU re-took the lead, Allen drove the baseline and then slung a pass to a wide-open Adlan Elamin for a corner 3-pointer.
The Aggies have the lead and this building is ROCKING 🔥 @USUBasketball pic.twitter.com/cIKrC8tSqF
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) January 31, 2026
Just like that, a seven-point deficit turned into Utah State’s first lead, 55-54, since it had been up 4-2 in the opening minutes.
As Utah State’s offense found its groove, the defense turned the screws on San Diego State. Dixon-Waters was only able to attempt two shots in the final seven minutes of the game (and went 1 of 2). Miles Byrd, the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year, hit one clutch shot that tied the game up at 59, but missed his final three shots of the game. And even his game-tying three was wasted one play later by a 3-pointer from Collins.
It was this defense that Calhoun latched onto the most about his team’s performance.
“The headline should be all about the Aggie defense and the Aggies’ toughness,” Calhoun said.
The crowning set of possessions brought together USU’s prowess on offense and defense. With two minutes to play, San Diego State had drawn back within two points, 63-61, Both sides had traded missed baskets, raising the tension in the buliding and setting the stage for a 5-0 Utah State run to bring the house down.
Collins started it off, hitting yet another clutch 3-pointer to put the Aggies up 66-61.
MICHAEL. COLLINS. JUNIOR. #AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/reN7UkjtFM
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 31, 2026
On the other end, Byrd missed his potential answer to that three. Back on offense, Templin showed off yet another skill some fans haven’t had the privilage of seeing. He caught a pass in the mid-post and then lobbed it up for Elamin who threw down a monster slam to give USU its largest lead of the night, 68-61.
Throw it down, young fella 🔥#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/DWSa0CUmIM
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 31, 2026
“Come to practice, man, you’ll see it. Me and Addy do that all the time. He’s always cutting from the corners.” Templin said when asked about the play and his role as a passer. “I love playing with him because he can shoot it, he can catch any ball. I don’t know how high it was thrown but, man, he went up and got it.”
With that cushion built, the Aggies held off the last gasps from San Diego State, which included an Aztec 5-0 run that cut the lead back down to two points, and held on for a five-point victory.
The win creates a tie for first place in the Mountain West between the Aggies and Aztecs who are both 9-2 in conference play. Should New Mexico beat San Jose State later in the day, the Lobos would join in the fun for a three-way tie of 9-2 teams. Utah State will have the chance to end part of that tie with a game at New Mexico next Wednesday.
