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LOGAN — In the second half of Utah State's matchup against Nevada Saturday night, Wolf Pack forward Desmond Cambridge Jr. confronted Aggies forward Brandon Horvath after a physical exchange.
Horvath looked at Cambridge and simply pointed to the scoreboard. The former UMBC big man got a technical for his antics, but got his points across: The Aggies dominated the game. From the 10:47 mark of the first half, Utah State outscored Nevada 63-34 en route to a 78-49 win.
Nevada students donning white shirts, ties and bike helmets, stood sheepishly as former Nevada Reno missionary Justin Bean led the Aggies to a balanced victory.
Bean, who had a head-to-head collision with Sean Bairstow during Wednesday night's win over San Diego State, sported an eye patch that covered part of his right eye and put up a team-high 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
RJ Eytle Rock, Max Shulga, Steven Ashworth, Sean Bairstow and Horvath also put up double digits in the win. As a team, Utah State was 50% from the field and 37% from 3-point range.
"Obviously, a great win for us against a tough Nevada team," Odom said. "There wasn't one guy who did it for us; it was a collection of guys."
Utah State, which was without Rylan Jones for a second straight game (concussion), has appeared to hit its stride in conference play.
After opening the Mountain West Conference slate 1-5, the Aggies have secured back-to-back Quad 2 wins over San Diego State and Nevada. They host Air Force, San Jose State and UNLV at home next week, with a chance to flip positioning in the conference standings.
While an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is still out of reach based on recent projections, Utah State is playing at the high level it displayed early in nonconference play. The Aggies are moving the ball efficiently, hitting shots and matching opponents' physicality.
"We've just been sharing the ball more, so like our shots have been coming cleaner, more open," Etyle-Rock said.
In front of the 7,497 fans at the Lawlor Events Center, the Aggies finished with 22 assists on 30 made baskets. Utah State also outrebounded Nevada 41-31 and forced 15 Wolf Pack turnovers.
With the game tied 15-all with 10:57 left in the first half, the Aggies went on a run and never looked back. Bean threw down a dunk and Zee Hamoda came off the bench and hit a 3-pointer. And with four minutes left in the half, Shulga and Etyle-Rock hit back-to-back 3-pointers, both off Wolf Pack turnovers to give Utah State a 45-27 lead going into halftime.
The hot shooting continued in the second half as the Aggies jumped on a 16-2 run and led 61-31 — all but deciding the game with 13:24 remaining.
"Once we got the lead, we just kept saying let's keep the lead and extend it as much as we could. We didn't want to become satisfied," Etyle-Rock said.
Defensively, the Aggies did a nice job to match Nevada in transition and did not give up easy buckets against a dynamic offense. Steven Ashworth guarded standout guard Grant Sherfield and held him to 4 points on 1-of-12 shooting.
As a team, the Wolf Pack shot 34.6% from the field and just 13.3% from 3-point range.
Utah State travels back home to face Air Force on Tuesday.
