LOGAN — During what normally would have been a bye game for Utah State, the Aggies put on an offensive show for the crowd rather than rest from a grueling Mountain West schedule. They put up 99 points in an eventual 24-point win (99-75) over an athletic and capable Memphis team.
The Tigers stepped onto the court owning the 34th-ranked defense according to KenPom analytics, and that showed in the opening minutes. Utah State made just two of its first 11 field goal attempts. Luckily for the Aggies, their defense responded in kind, holding Memphis to a 2-for-8 shooting mark to start the game.
The grueling defense from both sides slowed scoring for both teams up until about the 4:31 mark of the first half. At that moment, USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun made a bold lineup choice against a Memphis team that had 7-footers to spare. He subbed out Adlan Elamin and put MJ Collins in for him. That left the Aggies with a four-guard lineup — Drake Allen, Mason Falslev, Kolby King and MJ Collins — with just one big: Karson Templin. Memphis had two players taller than 6-foot-11 on the court.
The move paid off in spades as Utah State surged ahead, first on a 7-1 run and later a 14-2 run. All-in-all, the Aggies outscored the Tigers 23-7 after Calhoun went with the smaller lineup. The speed allowed Utah State to find more open 3-point looks (and have the shooting on the court to hit those triples) and draw fouls on drives to the paint.
“We went to that small lineup and that’s what the game needed,” Calhoun said. “Kolby and that group of guys that played together in that stretch were tremendous. They’re quicker to the ball than the first group. Sometimes, when you see that pressure from little guys, it can bother you. So that was a risk I was willing to take. I felt like we had to get some energy off that bench, and it kind of flipped it.”
Utah State’s defense against Memphis’ big lineup was as impressive as the offense, and junior forward Karson Templin attributed that to the perimeter defense, crediting his teammates and saying they “are all really active on the ball” and that it threw a “curveball” at Memphis.
KT’s up to 14 points and it is LOUD loud in here 🙌#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/QOluxgjBTA
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 15, 2026
Templin, who scored a career-best 20 points, manned his center position very well as the only big on the court for long stretches, securing four rebounds in his 25 mintues plus two blocks. He also drew six fouls that led to him going 10-for-10 on free throws. It was the most makes at the free-throw line in his career without a miss.
“He and I had a very difficult discussion probably a month and a half ago, and I think it changed his season,” Calhoun said of Templin. “I was very direct in what this team needed and what he could provide, and he’s been on a tear ever since. So I think the sky’s the limit for the kid. I think he’s a really, really hard worker, and he’s improving at a vast rate right now.”
The 20-point barrier is one Templin has struggled to break in his career even in his best games. His previous career-high of 18 was a total he’d reached three times, including against San Diego State two weeks ago.
“I had that in the back of my mind, I can’t lie,” Templin said. “As soon as I saw I got to 18, I was like, I got to get another point.”
Templin was joined in the 20-plus point club by Collins (24) and Falslev (20). It’s the first time Utah State has had three 20-point scorers in a game since 2022 in a road game at San Diego (Max Shulga, Taylor Funk, Dan Akin).
The Mayor of 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/YRqVI6dqeS
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 15, 2026
With the small-ball lineup working so well, Memphis were forced into going small themselves, taking off one of the 7-footers and on their final defensive possession taking them all off the court (Utah State still hit a corner 3-pointer to close things out and take a 48-34 lead into halftime.
Utah State brought the hammer at the start of the second half, building the 14-point lead up to 19, but Memphis brought an even bigger response. The Tigers went on a 15-4 run which cut the Aggies’ nealry 20-point advantage down to just eight points.
Turnovers were a big factor in that run, as did a handful of fouls. Utah State made two of the three shots they attempted. The problem was taking only three shots as the Aggies turned it over four times, several being live-ball giveaways that led directly to Memphis points.
Facing the prospect of being the second Mountain West team to blow a roughly 20-point margin in as many days, Utah State responded with a 13-0 run. It cut short the best prospect of a Tigers’ comeback and the closest the visitors would get the rest of the way would be 13 points as garbage time approached.
Amid that second-half run, another Aggie cemented his impact, Elijah Perryman. Drake Allen had to go to the bench with foul trouble, putting Perryman on the court for a long stint in the middle of the second half. The true freshman acquited himself well, finishing the game with 10 points and nine assists (and only one turnover), coming up just shy of his second career double-double.
Elijah from 𝙒𝘼𝙔 outside 👀#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/tsZHnIchck
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 15, 2026
“To get nine assists and one turnover as a freshman when Drake only got to play 12 minutes. We don’t win that game without Elijah Perryman, let’s call it like it is,” Calhoun said.
Athough the result of the game was decided well before the final minute, the last 30 seconds brought some small controversy. Utah State ran up the score a bit, making three baskets in the final 27 seconds, two of those happening on fast breaks after the shot clock was turned off.
ALL GAS. NO BRAKES. #ShowMe pic.twitter.com/9xCAjCTOpn
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 15, 2026
Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway took some exception to that.
“You can’t do what they did,” Hardaway said. “We came out here to play this game, you’ve gotta have more class than that.”
Calhoun was not apologetic for his team’s behavior, citing the analytics — which look mainly at the final score — which will be determining his team’s fate on Selection Sunday. And it’s not the first time the Aggies, as directed by the coaching staff, have tried to sneak in an extra bucket to bolster the final margin of victory.
“Unfortunately, the way the rules are written with the analytics, the last two baskets we would not have scored if this was normal circumstance,” Calhoun said. “But the deck is stacked totally against mid-majors. You’ve got teams that have $10 [million] and $20 million rosters. We don’t have that. We don’t have the ability to play a bunch of quad one and quad two games. We can’t get them. So we’ve almost got to be perfect, let’s call it like it is. The Power Fours can lose 12, 13 games. We can lose five, right? So every possession is measured. And we’ve got to score the ball there.”
Calhoun’s only regret is that he feels he has to go all-out until the end to please analytical models.
“I would never have done that to Coach Hardaway,” Calhoun said. “Their assistant (coach is) a very good friend of mine, Mike Davis. I coached against him for years. He was at Indiana, a national runner-up coach. Got a ton of respect for Mike. He said, ‘Jerrod, I would run it up, too. You’ve got to do what you got to do. You’re scraping and clawing.’ And in three weeks, when we go to Selection Sunday, we’re not going to look back on possessions and say we could have won some of those.
With this 24-point in hand, Utah State will await its next opponent that will close out this three-game home stand. Boise State, a team the Aggies beat by 25 points more than a month ago, will come to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum seeking revenge Wednesday. The Broncos are coming off a stunning loss in which they blew a 23-point first-half lead to UNLV and lost in overtime to the Rebels at home.
