Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN — Bad losses are not an option for Utah State as it puts the final touches on what it hopes is an NCAA Tournament resume as the regular season winds down.
Against a lowly Wyoming program, the Aggies were kept on their heels in Laramie on Tuesday night. The Cowboys tested the visitors on offense and led by 3 points early in the second half.
Utah State found its resolve, though, and kept its postseason aspirations alive. Steven Ashworth manufactured 17 second-half points, and the at-large hopefuls held off the Cowboys for a 65-55 win.
Survive and advance, y'all.
"It's really hard to win on the road," Utah State head coach Ryan Odom said. "And this is a good basketball team here that we just played."
Wyoming's season hasn't gone to plan. Its best player, Graham Ike, is out for the season due to an injury, and the team has been hampered by other injuries, in addition to three players that have left the program. On Tuesday night, the hosts were also without head coach Jeff Linder, who was tending to his ill father.
But with senior guard Hunter Maldonado and a core of eight scholarship players, an eight-win Wyoming squad showed some fight against the Aggies and manufactured a 10-0 run to even the score 33-33 at halftime, and led 40-37 early in the second half. Guard Xavier DuSell stepped up with a game-high 21 points, and Maldonado finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
"I mean, they've had some really tough losses (at home) against really good teams — overtime against San Diego State," Odom said. "Anytime you have (Hunter Maldonado) on your team, you have a chance."
Utah State has plenty of playmakers of its own, though, and had to rely on them in the second half.
Steven Ashworth, who finished with 19 points, buried a deep 3-pointer to even the score at 40-40 with 14:32 remaining, then scored 5 additional points to cap off an 8-0 run to give the Aggies a 5-point lead.
Against a Pokes defense that held the Aggies to just 46% from the field and 26% from 3-point range, Max Shulga (11 points) managed to facilitate some easy looks with three assists and a handful of other key passes that resulted in layups. But due to the offensive sluggishness, the Aggies relied on an elite defense in the second half and slowed down Maldonado, while holding Wyoming to just a single second-chance bucket.
After a Maldonado layup cut the lead to two with nine minutes remaining, the Aggies held the Cowboys to just one made field goal for the rest of the game, and held Wyoming to 31% from the field for the game.
The visitors put together enough offense to pull away in the end, which included back-to-back assists from Shulga to Dan Akin, who finished with 11 points. The effort lifted Utah State's lead to eight with 3:39 to play, and Ashworth's and-one floater with 2:07 left sealed the victory.
"To hold them to 55 in their gym is not an easy thing to do. And certainly we're proud of the defense that the guys played," Odom said. "I thought our guys did a nice job throughout that second half. ... Obviously, Steven making his free throws, Max in pick and roll making some key plays when we needed them."
The Aggies, who rushed out of Laramie with hopes of beating an incoming blizzard expected to hit the high plains Tuesday night, will have Saturday off before facing UNLV and Boise State to closeout the season next week.
If all the missed jump shots on Tuesday night are any indication, it's a much–needed break for the Aggies players to rest their legs and gear up for the final stretch.
"We haven't been off since (December)," Odom said. "That's a long time. Every week you're prepping for a game and practice and weights and all that, so I told the guys before the game, regardless of this result, you've got two days off to kind of recharge and get ready for the stretch run in our last two games before the conference tournament."
