- Utah State secured a 74-69 victory over Grand Canyon, leading Mountain West standings.
- Mason Falslev's key plays and Kolby King's 3-pointer were pivotal in the win.
- Coach Jerrod Calhoun praised the team's defense and resilience in the final minutes.
LOGAN — It came down to the final minute, but the Aggies made enough plays to halt a two-game skid and in the process emerge alone atop the Mountain West Conference standings with a week to go.
A 17-point lead in the first half evaporated in the second half. However, the Utah State men's basketball team made plays down the stretch and to the delight of another sold out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, edged Grand Canyon, 74-69, in front of 10,270 fans late Saturday night.
"Tonight was a team win," USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "… I thought it was a great college basketball game, kind of a tale of two halves. Give Grand Canyon a ton of credit. I told coach Drew he's got a great team, he's got a lot of dynamic players."
A number of Aggies (24-5, 14-4 MW) certainly made timely plays over the final four-and-a-half minutes. Trailing for the first time since early in the game, USU didn't panic when the Lopes (18-11, 11-7) took a 59-58 lead with 4:53 left on the clock.
"There was a lot of communication," Calhoun said. "They had a sense of urgency. We were reeling at the eight-minute mark, just couldn't get the ball in the basket. We had to win it with our defense. The last couple of timeouts was about getting stops."
Mason Falslev made a pair of free throws and then drove in for a layup. Kolby King beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer off a pass from Falslev to give USU a 65-59 lead with 2:55 to play.
"That shot (by King) was absolutely huge," Aggie guard Drake Allen said. "He works hard and is ready for big moments. I wasn't surprised he shot it or made it. That was probably the game-winning shot."
"Mason Falslev took over, he activated Falslev mode in the timeout," Calhoun said. "(He said) 'we are not losing this game, we don't lose games in the Spec, stay together.'"
And what is "Falslev mode?"
"You see a look in his eye," Calhoun said. "I've seen it a lot of times in practice. It's just that fight, that defining look, guys, follow my lead, we are not going to lose this game."
The coach also credited Karson Templin, Allen, Elijah Perryman and MJ Collins Jr. for taking ownership and leading on the court and while on the bench.
Grand Canyon got within two with 1:24 to play when Jaden Henley scored four straight points.
Enter Templin, who scored in traffic with 63 ticks left in the game. Once again the Lopes scored. Then it was Collins' turn as he drilled a 3-pointer off a pass from Falslev to give USU some breathing room with 33 seconds to play.
"Our coaches have done a great job of preaching to us to stay together," Allen said. "There is no finger pointing. We are going to buckle down and do it together."
Allen had helped USU run out to a double digit lead in the first half with 14 points on 6 of 6 shooting on Stew Morrill Court.
"All glory to God," Allen said. "This year has been a struggle, lots of ups and downs for me. I'm trying to stay steady spiritually, physically and mentally. I feel like these last games down the stretch I've got to be better with so much pressure on Mason and MJ. I have to be able to make plays."
Allen and Templin, who fouled out with less than a minute to play, led the Aggies in scoring with 15 points each. Collins netted 13, and Falslev finished with 11 points and a game-best nine rebounds, while also leading the team in assists with four.
"I thought we were tremendous in the first half, sharing the ball, making the right play," Calhoun said. "Coming out of halftime, we just didn't see it go in. You've got to give Grand Canyon a ton of credit because they kept battling and chipping away, and it turned into a great college basketball game the last seven minutes.
"This will pay big dividends for us; there were a lot of guys in big pressure moments. Some guys stepped up and delivered, Kolby King, MJ Collins. I thought Drake (Allen) carried us for a long time. We weren't perfect, but we battled through fatigue and not playing well offensively, and that matters this time of year. Toughness matters, and I thought that's what won the game tonight."
The Lopes were led by Henley with a game-high 22 points. Makaih Williams and Efe Demirel added 19 and 11 points, respectively.
"Utah State was coming off of two losses and coming back to their home building, so we knew they were going to come out," Grand Canyon head coach Bryce Drew said. "They made shots from all over from different guys, but our guys did a good job of manufacturing enough points to stay in striking distance. In the second half, what a fantastic start, definitely passing the ball. Once we got into the second half, we outscored them by about 15 points in the first 15 minutes. We love the effort from our guys, especially on the road."
The Lopes scored first, but the Aggies quickly heated up from long range. The first five buckets by the hosts were from 3-point land. Allen knocked down his second trey, and Templin followed with a pair of 3-pointers during a 9-0 run to put USU in front, 12-5, less than four minutes into the contest.
Grand Canyon scored back-to-back buckets for the first and only time over the first 20 minutes to get within 12-10.
Collins drilled a shot from beyond the arc to spark a 14-0 run by the Aggies. The Lopes went five minutes without scoring. Six different USU players scored during the big surge. King turned a steal into a pair of free throws to cap the run, giving the hosts a 26-10 lead with 10:45 left in the opening half.
Perryman drilled a 3-pointer to give USU its biggest lead of the first half, 29-12, at the midway point of the first 20 minutes.
The Lopes were able to inch back to within 37-27 with five 3-pointers. Williams and Henley each knocked down a pair of treys.
The Aggies finished off the half with two dunks by Allen. Both came as USU pushed the ball. The second slam by the new father brought out a loud "Who's your daddy" chant from the Aggie students.
"I felt like my younger self," Allen said. "I need to be more aggressive and today I was thinking I've only got two games left in the Spec, got to do something, give it all I've got."
USU took a 41-27 lead into the break as the Aggies turned eight Lope turnovers into 10 points, while giving up just three points on three turnovers. The hosts didn't commit their first turnover until 13 minutes into the game.
After only scoring back-to-back buckets once in the first half, Grand Canyon opened the second half with five quick points off a dunk by Henley and a 3-pointer by Nana Owusu-Anane.
After USU answered with five straight points on a Collins dunk and a Falslev trey, the Lopes strung together their best run of the game, scoring nine unanswered points to get within 46-41 with 14:32 to play. Owusu-Anane capped the surge with a 3-pointer.
Two minutes later the visitors were running again with seven straight points as the Aggies went nearly four minutes without scoring. Williams pulled the Lopes within 51-50 with 10 minutes left in the game.
Five straight missed free throws by Allen allowed Grand Canyon to fight back and tie it up at 54-54 with 8:11 left on the clock.
The Lopes took the lead for the first time since the opening minute of the game, 59-58, when Brian Moore Jr. swished a 3-pointer with just under five minutes left in the contest.
The Aggies responded with seven straight points that ended up being the difference.
"It really came down to about three or four possessions," Calhoun said. "That's how crazy the margins are between winning and losing, winning a league or not, finishing first or fourth or fifth. It all comes down to a couple of plays."
With two games left in the regular season, USU controls its own destiny.
"At the end of the day, we need to come out and play," Allen said. "We have to play every possession like it's a championship game. We got to win games. You don't just walk to a championship. It's not going to be easy."
