Utah State stays hot from 3-point line in 87-57 win over Air Force


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Utah State defeated Air Force 87-57, making 16 3-pointers in the game.
  • Ian Martinez led with 16 points, while Isaac Johnson scored 12, both excelling from beyond the arc.
  • Coach Jerrod Calhoun praised the team's shot selection and defensive adjustments during the game.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. β€” Ian Martinez sprinted into a handoff, came off a screen and connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

As the ball went through the net, a player at the end of the opponent's bench shrugged as if to say, "You've got to be kidding me."

That's the kind of afternoon Utah State had from beyond the arc.

The Aggies made 16 3-pointers to beat Air Force 87-58 on Saturday afternoon. Seven different players made at least one 3-pointer for Utah State (18-2, 8-1 MW), which shot 52% from the outside.

"We're taking good shots," Aggies coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "The reason you make 3s is good passing and taking the right shot."

Saturday marked the second consecutive game the Aggies made 16 3-point shots; they went 16-of-30 in Wednesday's win over Nevada.

"We're really shooting it the last two games," Calhoun said.

Martinez led Utah State in scoring with 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, while Isaac Johnson scored 12 points and shot 4-of-6 from behind the 3-point line. Mason Falslev added 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Utah State trailed just once to Air Force β€” a 6-4 deficit β€” within the first three minutes of the game, but the road team went on a 25-6 run to lead by 17 with about nine minutes left in the first half.

The Falcons, however, started playing better and cut their deficit to just 9 at halftime.

Calhoun said one of the strengths of his team is its malleability, particularly because of its zone defense. He added that a couple of defensive tweaks at halftime allowed the Aggies to regroup after losing its big lead.

"I thought we did overreact when we got up 17," Calhoun said. "We have to do a better job of that."

Utah State led just 44-38 in the opening minutes of the second half, and by just 7 with about 13 remaining in the game. The team clamped down on defense, however, and were able to build another double-digit lead to keep it that way for the rest of the game.

In addition to Martinez's shoulder-shrugging shot, Johnson had one of his own β€” one of his career-high four 3-pointers banked in.

"I was a little surprised that it banked in," Johnson said. "But I was just shooting the ball and flowing it and it a felt a lot better. I didn't have any doubt that it was going to (go in). I just didn't think that its as going to go in from the backboard."

Utah State plays UNLV at home Wednesday, which will set up Saturday's home matchup with New Mexico β€” the Mountain West's other top team.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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