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LAS VEGAS — Utah State has grown accustomed to being comfortable in the discomfort this season.
So when it began a pivotal Mountain West semifinals game against Boise State 1-of-11 from beyond the arc, Utah State remained unfazed.
When the Aggies trailed by 8 points in the second half, and the Broncos controlled all the momentum, the Aggies stayed the course. Even after RJ Etyle-Rock's textbook gather step and bucket to give Utah State its first lead of the game was called back for traveling late in the game, at least one player, Steven Ashworth, didn't wince.
In the end, the cool mentality prevailed.
Utah State trailed Boise State for 33 minutes inside the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night, but finished the game on a 24-13 run to defeat Boise State 72-62.
The statement victory will lock in Utah State's at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament and book its fourth meeting against San Diego State in the Mountain West championship game in the last five years.
"I think that throughout the entire season we've had different opportunities and experiences where things like that have happened," Ashworth said. "Our focus going out throughout the rest of those next few minutes is controlling the things that we can control. I think that our guys did a great job of doing that, staying composed, and we got the result that we wanted because of that cool, calm, and collected feeling that we all had."
Boise State succeeded in slowing down Utah State's dynamic offense for much of the game, where it denied the pick-and-roll to the basket and forced the Aggies into deep shots at the end of the shot clock. A steady stream of whistles also kept Utah State out of its rhythm.
Ashworth and company kept with it, though, and the game started to turn in their favor.
The Aggies clamped down defensively and held the Broncos without a field goal for nearly eight minutes in the second half before Boise State hit a shot with 2:05 left in the game. During that time, Utah State made key buckets to chip away at the deficit and eventually took the lead.
Once Etyle Rock buried a corner 3-pointer to go up 56-51 with 6:30 remaining, there was no stopping the Aggies. Max Shulga hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Aggies a 9-point lead and then Marcus Shaver Jr. was called for an offensive foul. Boise State head coach Leon Rice was called for a technical, and the Aggies faithful went into a frenzy.
"Just a great game all around," Utah State head coach Ryan Odom said. "Boise really came after us hard in that first half. I mean, they were really impressive and were blowing up a lot of our ball screens. … I think once we began to settle into the second half, closed the gap a little bit, our guys began to feel some juice there, and you kind of saw how the ending went."
Utah State's defensive effort worked, as did the key shots the Aggies made late. Both were a byproduct of the Aggies' depth on the roster.
With Taylor Funk — the hero in Thursday night's quarterfinal win — riddled by foul trouble, several other Aggies players made their mark. Off the bench, Dan Akin had 7 points and eight rebounds, and Etyle-Rock chipped in 13 points. Shulga delivered a game-high 19 points, while Ashworth added 14 points and Sean Bairstow finished with 12. Despite shooting just 37.5% shooting in the first half, the Aggies simply had too many weapons to be contained all game.
Conversely, Boise State shot 53.8% from the field in the first half, and when star forward Tyson Degenhart went to the bench with his fourth foul, the Broncos offense went caput.
"Teams don't win with one guy," Shulga said. "Five players on the court, and everyone else on the bench. You know, just move around, pass the ball, and eventually we'll find our shot."
"The three-day tournament like this benefits the deeper you can be," Rice said. "You need that depth."
The Aggies will put its depth to test, once again, as it faces a quick turnaround from a near midnight finish to a 3 p.m. tipoff against San Diego State on Saturday. The Aggies will have little time to savor what was undoubtably a satisfying win against a conference rival.
After Boise State beat Utah State by 23 points in January, Broncos guard Max Rice said after the game: "The only thing I worry about is it might become a Quad 2 game after that since we beat them by 20."
In less than a week's span, the Aggies responded with two double-digit Quad 1 wins over Boise State to get the last laugh. On Friday night, Rice was held to 0-of-6 shooting for 1 point and was handed his second Quad 1 loss to Utah State on the season.
Meanwhile, the Aggies move on to put their coolness to the test against the nationally-ranked Aztecs.
