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

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

As the clock ticked under three minutes to play, Utah State’s road game in Laramie against the Wyoming Cowboys could hardly be going better. Sure, the home team had shot above-average from three and made life very difficult for the visiting Aggies in the first 37 minutes. But USU had made 12 of its last 14 field goal attempts and were leading by 11 points, 78-67. However, much like Wyoming had done all night, every haymaker by the Mountain West’s first-place team was answered in full. And when MJ Collins missed a free throw with 13 seconds, the Cowboys sprinted down the court with a chance for a game-winning shot that came up just short. That allowed Utah State to escape “Laradise” with an 85-83 win in a game which they were favored to win by nearly double digits. “I haven’t watched the tape so I don’t want to [be] quick to judge, but [we were] just very discombobulated,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said of the final minutes. “As the momentum shifted our attention to detail and our understanding [of] time, score, different things, were not very good.” While the final three minutes could be a story unto itself,