SAN DIEGO — After going 22 years without a single NCAA Tournament win, the Utah State Aggies have won two within a three-year span thanks to its Friday-afternoon 86-76 victory over Villanova.
The victory took a historic level of effort from the Aggies, who had to withstand one of the most intense 3-point barrages put forth in this year’s tournament. Villanova hit 14 triples, their third-most in a game this season and tied for second-most by any team in March Madness so far in 2026. The most 3-pointers Utah State had allowed in a single NCAA Tournament game all-time was nine. That tally occurring in a 39-point blowout suffered at the hands of the eventual national runner-up Purdue Boilermakers.
At seemingly every turn, Villanova’s absurd 3-point shooting volume curbed Utah State’s attempts to seize control of the game. The Aggies opened up a 22-13 lead eight minutes into the game, 19 of those points coming in the paint or as a result of shooting fouls inside the key.
.@USUBasketball IS PUTTING ON A SHOW IN SAN DIEGO. pic.twitter.com/HRkD8BjLhY
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Utah State needed to rely on that paint dominance as it made only two 3-pointers itself the entire game (adding further contrast for Villanova’s own performance). And in the very moment USU’s interior offense skipped a beat late in the first half, Villanova’s downtown shooting brought it roaring back from the nine-point deficit.
At halftime, what had been a controlling lead for the Aggies had become a small, but demoralizing 39-37 hole.
Worse still, when the second half began, Villanova burst ahead, including a 9-0 run that handed the Wildcats a 10-point lead.
“We’ve been unbelievable [this season] at after timeout plays and coming out of the timeout, and really coming out of the halftime in general. That was very uncharacteristic for us,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said.
The Aggies were able to “stay the course” in Calhoun’s words, and rally back from that poor start to the latter half, but even in doing that, Villanova’s pesky long-distance shooting vexed Utah State.
When MJ Collins made what was the team’s second 3-pointer of the night, and cut the lead down to five, the Wildcats immediately responded with a 3-pointer.
Five minutes later, after a hard-fought run by the Aggies to actually re-take the lead, 63-61, Bryce Lindsay hit his fifth triple of the day to put Villanova back up.
With six minutes to go, after Adlan Elamin hit a certifiable circus shot to give the Aggies another small lead, Lindsay hit his sixth shot from outside, again flipping a USU lead to a Villanova advantage, 73-71.
But unbeknownst to participants and onlookers alike, that triple wound up being the 14th and final one of the afternoon for the Wildcats. It would set the stage for a dominant close to the game for the Aggies. A 15-3 run in the final 6:04 that turned a game dangerous close to defeat into what a box score watcher might think was an easy double-digit victory.
To pull off that game-winning closing stretch, Utah State’s players went to the basics and trusted their instincts.
“No plays, just run and flow and do what we do,” said Mason Falslev about the offensive emphasis in the final minutes of the game. “We’ve learned concepts all year that should let us up for good offense, so just trusting in that down the stretch.”
The Aggies also closed the trap on nearly an entire game’s worth of setup. As the final minutes began to tick by, they saw the fruits from the labors from 35 minutes of constant pressure on the Wildcats’ players.
“We came the huddle. And coach was like ‘They were wearing down,'” Collins said. “We strive off our depth and they played seven, eight guys, so we knew at some point they were going to wear down. They shot the cover off the ball early. You can’t really maintain that for a whole 40 minutes.”
Collins took advantage of that Villanova fatigue the most. He scored nine of his 20 points in the final four minutes of the game. That included two fast break buckets, one of which was a perfectly-timed jump on the passing lane for a steal-and-score dunk.
SHOW US THE HANDLES MJ COLLINS! @USUBasketball pic.twitter.com/FcvoWuFnC8
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.@USUBasketball CAN FEEL IT! pic.twitter.com/gSyd350Hec
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Mason Falslev hit his own crucial shots at the end of the game. His mid-range jumper with 97 seconds to play put the Aggies up by eight points, 82-74, just about icing the game. Falslev led all USU players in scoring with 22 points while also reeling in seven rebounds (tied with Adlan Elamin for the team high) and four assists.
Utah State’s victory was a testament to toughness and overcoming its own shortcoming and a herculean effort from an opponent. The Aggies became the first team to hit fewer than three 3-pointers and give up 14 or more triples and win an NCAA Tournament first round game. Utah State is only the second ever to do it in any round (Gonzaga beat Indiana in 2006 under the same criteria).
“All you do is keep battling,” Drake Allen said. “You can’t throw your hands up in the air. You can’t say, oh, my goodness, you know, just gotta move on to the next play and keep on fighting.”
And fight the Aggies did, from the perimeter to the paint. The latter ended up being they key on offense. Utah State outscored Villanova 42-26 in the paint.
On defense, the Aggies made changes to force Villanova away from what had been working for the Wildcats all game.
“We switched up a couple coverages late in the game and it kind of messed them up,” Collins said.
That defense, as Collins’ fast breaks can attest to, led to offense. Elamin even credited much of his play — which amounted to a very solid 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists — to a function of turning defense into offense.
“That was really just me feeding off our defense and the energy from the rest of the guys and the guys finding me in the right spot,” Elamin said.
Utah State’s victory will bring it to a clash with No. 1 seed Arizona on Sunday. The (Arizona) Wildcats won their first-round game 92-58 over Long Island.
