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LAS VEGAS — It was a redemption tour of sorts when Utah State started the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Aggie men's basketball team would face three teams that had beaten them near the end of the regular season. Despite that, USU had won the regular season and the top seed for the tournement. But they came to Sin City with a bad taste in their mouth.
On Saturday afternoon the Aggies capped off three wins in three days — all by double digits — and got to cut down a net for the second straight week. USU broke a tight game open late against second-seeded San Diego State to win the tournament, 73-62.
"Extremely, extremely proud of the toughness level that this group of guys came to Vegas with," USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "We were not going to be bullied. We were going to be the bully. I kind of deem this our redemption tour. UNLV beat us twice, Nevada beat us at Nevada, and obviously got embarrassed a couple weeks ago by the Aztecs. We were coming in here to be the bully, we were coming in here for a redemption tour, and it certainly was accomplished."
The win clinches an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament that begins next week. The Aggies (28-6) will be dancing.
"I think our focus needs to be on the Selection Show tomorrow and get ready for the games," Calhoun said. "We're not looking ahead. We're going to keep our nose down. … As you guys see, this team has a real shot. We don't want to be just happy to be in the tournament. We want to make a run and make history again and get to a second weekend, which has never been done."
Aggie guard MJ Collins Jr. was named the MVP of the tournament. He was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Mason Falslev and Drake Allen, as well as San Diego State guard Reese Dixon-Waters and forward Magoon Gwath.
"It means the world (being named MVP), but it also shows how good our team is," said Collins, who a team-best 20 points, three rebounds and three steals in the championship game. "Mason got Mountain West Player of the Year, and then I can come and get the MVP. I know you said we look at team accolades. This is a team accolade. I wouldn't be able to do it without them, so I'm thankful for them and coach Calhoun, of course. Like I've continued to say, the fans travel for us. On their spring break, they gave their time up to come and support us, so it means the world."
For the tournament, Collins averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 steals a game.
"I'll talk about him for a bit, I guess," Allen said of Collins. "He's MVP for a reason. That's what he does. Whenever we need a big shot down the stretch, he was ready to take them. We're very confident putting the ball in his hands. We know he's going to make big shots. He's been doing it all year."
"It's awesome when MJ can get to his shots," Falslev said of Collins. "And obviously everyone tries to stop him, but it's pretty awesome to see throughout the season he's been able to do what he's done."
Trailing midway through the second half, 50-49, USU got a bucket from Falslev and three straight stops on the defensive end before Garry Clark scored on an offensive rebound. It would be the start of a stretch where the Aggies would outscore the Aztecs 16-4 during a five-minute stretch.
Collins made back-to-back 3-pointers. Zach Keller sank a pair of free throws, and Adlan Elamin made a layup off a pass from Collins to give USU a 65-54 lead with 4:10 minutes to play.
"Yeah, it made me feel good," Collins said. "I got to chirping a little bit. But just credit to coach; he always tells me to make the right read. As I'm coming off the pin-downs and I'm taking a rearview peek at Reese Dixon to see how he's guarding me, I curled one of them, hit the three. And the second one, he tried to shoot the gap, and I bumped it. A great screen by Zach (Keller), great pass by Mason, and the shot goes down. It's a big swing because it was a five-point swing right there, Zach goes to the line, hits two free throws. So it was huge."
Falslev gave the Aggies their largest lead of the game, 71-59, on a drive and score over the 7-foot Gwath with 1:47 left in the contest.
"For me personally, I think it all started with UNLV," Falslev said. "I think that's where we came together as a team. UNLV was throwing punches at us, and we saw one another step up for each other. And it just kind of continued into game after game. I think that's what we saw tonight."
Joining Collins in double-digit scoring was Falslev (16), Allen (13) and Clark (11) off the bench. Allen and Clark each grabbed six rebounds. Falslev had a game-high six assists, and Collins came up with a game-best three steals.
"Kolby King yesterday was unbelievable; Garry (Clark) today, unbelievable," Calhoun said. "Tucker Anderson has timely shots. Elijah Perryman has had huge moments, Karson Templin. The strength of this team is its numbers, and it's a team. There's very few team-teams left. There's a lot of teams that have talent, but they don't have both. They don't put we over me.
"These guys have done that time and time again. I've said it over and over. This is one of the most connected groups I've ever been around in the history of my head coaching career and my assistant career."
Dixon-Waters led the Aztecs with 20 points, while B.J. Davis came off the bench to net 14. Gwath added 12 point and game-high eight rebounds.
"First of all, congratulations to coach Calhoun and Utah State, their coaching staff," SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher said. "Regular season champs and postseason champs, that's hard to do. But they did it. They did it with great efficiency. We knew the whole game was going to be decided in the paint, and they got in the paint more than we did."
Saturday was a rubber match of sorts between the Aggies and Aztecs (22-11) who met for the fifth time in the last eight years for the tournament championship. Both had won twice before Saturday.
"First of all, that's an NCAA Tournament team," Calhoun said. "They belong in the NCAA Tournament. If you look at their body of work, I hope they get in. I think coach Dutcher is a tremendous coach. This league deserves a couple bids. There's no doubt about it."
Second-seeded SDSU had made 12 of last 15 finals, but are now 3-9 in those games, The Aztecs were playing for an NCAA berth as its uncertain whether they are in the Big Dance.
"We're disappointed," Dutcher said. "We wanted to win in the worst way and put ourselves in a position to do that, and then obviously Utah State did a great job defensively and really limited our opportunities at the offensive end."
After trading buckets to begin the game, the Aggies scored seven straight points to take an early 9-4 lead less than three minutes into the championship. Elamin started the surge with a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound pass from Keller.
The Aztecs responded with seven straight points of their own to get back in front, 13-11, with 14:20 left in the opening half as USU went almost three minutes without scoring.
Collins put the Aggies back in front with a 3-pointer after Elijah Perryman came up with a steal and found him outside the arc. The trey gave USU a 20-17 lead with 11:46 left in the first half.
A rebound dunk by Collins — that brought the Aggie faithful to their feet — was followed by a three-point play by Clark to give USU its largest lead of the first 20 minutes, 25-19, at the midway point of the first half.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by SDSU from Dixon-Waters and Miles Byrd knotted up the score at 32-32 with five minutes before the break.
Falslev ended a nearly four-minute scoring drought with a layup off a pass from Allen. However, the Aztecs scored the final five points of the half to take a 35-34 lead into the break.
Over the final five minutes of the first half, USU scored two points, while SDSU scored three.
Allen came out hot to start the second half, scoring all seven points during a 7-0 run to force an Aztec timeout. Allen swooped in for a layup off a pass from Falslev to make it 41-35 with 18:22 to play.
"Great job from coach," Allen said. "We had a Spain action coming into the second half. And he just told me, make your reads. Kind of what MJ said. Coach gives us a lot of freedom. That's why on offense we can be so dangerous."
Like they did all game, the Aztecs fought back. In fact, SDSU got back in front with a 10-2 run. Dixon-Waters capped it with a layup, giving the Aztecs a 45-43 lead with 13:35 left on the clock.
Collins put the Aggies back in front with a drive to the hoop and a one-handed jam.
After four lead changes and two ties, USU made the game-deciding run.
"I think it's just a mindset, you know?" Allen said. "We came in the last couple days, and we were watching the game last night, and it didn't matter who was going to win, we owed whoever came in today, we owed it to them to kick their butts, really.
"Every game we've been on edge. They out-rebounded us a little bit in the first half, and you've got to adjust. They got us pretty good on some free throws. We just got to keep battling. And I think that our team was very resilient. When bad plays hit, we didn't duck our heads and run away from it. We just keep on going through people's chests and keep on boxing out and keep on playing tough."
USU became the seventh program in MW history to win the regular season and tournament titles in the same year, San Diego State had done it three times.
