LOGAN — Utah State completely shut down one of the hottest offenses in the country in a 75-56 win over Boise State on Wednesday. The win completed an Aggie sweep of the Broncos with USU winning the two games by a combined 44 points.
The Aggies didn’t quite have the lava-hot scoring it did in putting up 93 against the Broncos back in January, which helped an extra-staunch defensive effort took center stage this time around.
Boise State brought one of the hottest offenses in the conference to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Over the previous eight games, the Broncos had shot a hair under 50% from the field and 39% from three. That enabled a scoring rate of 84.9 points per game (granted there were a couple overtime games in that span).
But against the Aggies, Boise State were shooting as if they were playing outside in the piles of snow building up around the arena. The Broncos shot just 37% from the field, their second-lowest mark in conference play. The 56 points set a new season low.
Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun noted multiple times that his team’s dominance on that end came from paying attention to the details. After that, it was just execution of their scheme against Boise State’s.
“There was really nowhere for (Boise State) to create advantages,” Calhoun said. “Leon (Rice) and Tim (Duryea), they made a conscious effort to throw the ball inside, and Zach (Keller) did a great job on (Drew) Fielder. That kid’s good. 7-foot, can shoot the three. He made some, but we wanted to make it hard on them. And then we wanted to force those other guys to bounce it. No threes, run them off the line.”
Keller got more than one shout-out from Calhoun for his solid play on the night. He scored the first seven points for the Aggies and ended the day with 10 points, seven rebounds (the latter being a season-high and former being one point shy of his season-best).
“It felt great,” Keller said of his night. “I’m just trying to do what I can to help my team. And having it be so that I was making plays early and then helping my team out defensively, it just, you know, felt great.”
Statistically, Keller’s game was nice, but it was his defense against Drew Fielder that brought more praise from Calhoun. Fielder had hit 10 threes in the last two games combined and was averaging 16.4 points in the Broncos’ nine-game offensive surge. Fielder still scored 14 points, but did so on 5-for-12 shooting. And his two 3-pointers both happened when Keller was off the court.
“Really proud of Zach Keller. We let him light the day up. This kid is just getting better and better,” Calhoun said. “The size that he has protecting the rim. I thought he did a tremendous job on their bigs.”
That defense came in quite handy as Utah State started off the game struggling to make shots. The Aggies made just one of the first seven attempts from three and with just under nine minutes left to play in the first half found themselves giving up a 9-0 run and trailing 21-14 after the one single scoring burst the Broncos pulled off all night.
So, for the next 12 minutes spanning the end of the first half and opening minutes of the second, Utah State held Boise State to a single made field goal. The Aggies went on a 23-4 run — 16-2 to end the half and take a 30-23 lead into the break and then 7-2 out of it — which handed them almost complete control over the game.
Mason Falslev played a major role in that surge, more specifically in the second half. He made just 1 of 6 shots in the first half but got hot early in the second. He scored 13 second-half points, nine of those in the first few minutes coming out of halftime.
“The beautiful thing about Mason Falslev is he’s so competitive, he almost tries even harder offensively when he’s not making shot,” Calhoun said. “We called his number on four or five straight plays. Move the defense, get it side to side, get him downhill, get the ball in his hands. He doesn’t let a negative play, a missed shot, affect him at all.”
Falslev finished with a team-high 17 points and was joined in double figures by MJ Collins (13), and both Keller and Adlan Elamin who had 10 points apiece.
The 75 points will certainly feel like a low point for the offense, but the game featured just 60 possessions, the slowest paced game Utah State has been in all season. And even when looking back on the early stages of the game, Calhoun didn’t have many complaints about the offense since the process was sound.
“You guys are probably over there saying, ‘Man, they’re taking too many threes.’ I’m more about what’s the process of taking that three look like,” Calhoun said. “Did we screen or is it a step-in shot? If we’re taking step-in threes and we’re moving the ball and we’re just not making them, that’s good offense. Sometime the result isn’t there. I didn’t feel like any of our shots were bad. They just weren’t going in.”
Utah State’s win puts it a full game ahead of second-place San Diego State in the Mountain West standings, the Aggies being 13-2 in conferene play to the Aztecs’ 12-3. The real test will now begin, though, as USU will go on a two-game road trip. First to Nevada to take on a Wolf Pack team stinging from a loss to San Jose State, and will then play San Diego State for a chance to take full control of the conference title race.
