LOGAN — Fresno State entered the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum ranked as the seventh-best 3-point defenders in the nation. Opponents had shot just 28% from distance against them all year. Utah State didn’t oblige that elite-level defense and promptly sank 14 triples in a 91-78 handling of the Bulldogs on Spectrum Magic Night in Logan.
Those 14 long-distance makes were the most made by the Aggies against a Division I opponent this season. And it by far eclipsed the mere five USU hit at Fresno State in the Dec. 30 matchup between the two sides. Freshman guard Elijah Perryman hit a season-high four from the outside. Fellow freshman Adlan Elamin hit a pair as did Zach Keller (a season-best for him). MJ Collins and Kolby King had three triples apiece.
Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun has often tied 3-point percentage to effective passing — the Aggies had 20 assists to just nine turnovers on Tuesday — and praised his team’s effectiveness in that regard over the last few games.
It also helped that Utah State just went out and fired away, which also pleased Calhoun.
“Our volume of threes is not where I’d like it to be. Tonight, it was awesome,” Calhoun said. “Anytime you get 25, 30 threes, you can make almost half of them. That’s good offense.”
“I just shot it with confidence, and it was great to see all of us make shots, not just me,” Perryman said. “When our team’s shooting with confidence, we can shoot lights out.”
Utah State needed those 3-pointers early and often with Fresno State getting off to a quick start. The Bulldogs jumped out to an 8-0 start, making each of their first four shots. It took the Aggies a moment to adjust, with a lot of that coming from the bench. Just a minute and a half into the game, head coach Jerrod Calhoun set four bench players — Perryman, Karson Templin, Kolby King and Garry Clark — to the scorers’ table to check in.
“I was pretty disgusted with the effort to start a game,” Calhoun said. “You’ve got Spectrum Magic. You’re coming off a game where you didn’t close out, and you’re down eight-nothing. As a coach, you can’t stomach that.”
To the starter’s credit, they did get the game to 10-8 by the time all but Mason Falslev were subbed off the court. But the bench unit then brought the energy necessary to surge ahead of the Bulldogs. They would eventually put together an 18-5 run that build the Aggies’ largest lead of the first half, 36-25.
It was during this early stretch where Utah State was pulling away to a double-digit lead that Perryman hit three of his 3-pointers and Zach Keller hit both of his. Perryman hit back-to-back threes to turn a 13-10 hole for USU into a 16-13 lead. He also flipped a 20-18 deficit into a 21-18 lead with another triple.
EP’s dialing in from deep!#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/4hEJfs4fwO
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 11, 2026
Keller had a five-point solo run, hitting a 3-pointer and then a layup which extended the Aggies’ lead from four points to nine. The senior forward played just under 22 minutes, the most playing time for him since the season opener, and scored 11 points with one assist and one blocked shot.
“Zach Keller had his best game,” Calhoun said. “So it’s not all those starters that got off to that poor start. I thought Zach was great. I thought the energy and the effort — he just can only go in spurts. It’s like two to three minutes and I’ve got to get him out. But his three-minute spurts have been really good. He’s giving us a presence inside.”
Thanks to 20 bench points in the first half alone (43 for the entire game next to 19 for the Bulldogs), plus 10 made 3-pointers at the break, the Aggies walked into halftime up 47-35, needing another strong defensive stretch and a bit more offense. And for a little bit in the second half, they mostly got that.
Fresno State shaved Utah State’s lead down to nine points early in the second, thanks entirely to an 11-point burst from Jake Heidbreder, who finished with 19 points for the evening. But the Aggies’ weathered that and held the Bulldogs to one made field goal for an eight-minute stretch. During that time, USU’s lead peaked at 22 points (76-54).
That lead didn’t last, largely because the second half became a foul-fest. In the first half there were only 10 fouls called in total (five to each team) and two total free throws (again, evenly split). The referees showed no such restraint in the latter half of the game, whistling Utah State for 15 fouls and sending Fresno State to the free throw line 22 times. The Aggies had 18 free throws in the second on 11 fouls against the Bulldogs.
Fresno State scored 13 points during a single eight-minute span in the second half on free throws alone, subsidising their meagure scoring by field goals at that stage of the game.
As much as free throw shooting brought the Aggies’ lead back under 20 points, it did little to alter the course of the game. Utah State never led by less than 12 points in the final 15 minutes of the game. Fresno State’s biggest blow in pulling as close as they did was prevent USU from covering a 20.5-point spread and meet the expectations of computer metrics that expected it to win by 16+ points.
Tuesday’s game ends a flurry of games in which Utah State played three opponents within a single week, taking on New Mexico last Wendesday, Wyoming on Saturday and Fresno State on the sixth day. The Aggies will in one sense, be on a bye in Mountain West play the rest of this week, but won’t get the full time off as it will host Memphis on Saturday.
