Utah State, Dan Akin nab convincing road victory over Fresno State

LOGAN — To keep pace with the top of the Mountain West standings, road game wins against lower-level opponents are a must for Utah State.

Facing a 7-12 Fresno State side had the makings of a trap game, though. The Bulldogs boast home wins over New Mexico and UNLV and hold visiting conference teams to just 58.5 points per game.

For the Aggies, the only drama at the Save Mart Center on Saturday evening involved the game's livestream cutting out. Utah State coasted to a 70-53 win over Fresno State to improve to 6-3 in the conference standings.

At 17-5 on the season, the Aggies have matched last season's regular season win total. As the calendar turns to February, the boys in blue remain in the hunt for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament with a Quad 1 showdown against New Mexico in the Spectrum looming on Wednesday.

"We're proud of our guys," Utah State head coach Ryan Odom said. "All in all, to come into this arena against this opponent and be able to defend the way that we did, and then also score (70). … Our guys did a nice job of really trusting one another and playing a really balanced game."

Fresh off Wednesday night's loss at San Diego State, Utah State didn't want to return from its California trip empty-handed, thanks to the play of Dan Akin, who finished 8-of-10 from the field for a game-high 23 points and had eight rebounds to set the tone for the Aggies on both ends of the court.

With Fresno State leading 19-16 in the first half, Akin hammered in a second-chance dunk off a Taylor Funk miss, blocked Donavan Yap's shot, and finished the breakaway layup to re-take the lead. In the second half, he posted 11 points, including 6 of 13 points to open the second half on a 13-8 run.

Akin and center Trevin Dorius won the battle down low for Utah State and limited starting forward Eduardo Andre to 1 point, and outrebounded the Bulldogs 41-24.

"Dan was fabulous today, and he's been that way recently," Odom said. "He's been playing great for us. We certainly need him to do that. He's a tough guard out there in terms of his athleticism. He runs the court, he rebounds the ball, he can score with his back to the basket."

The Aggies built a 21-point second-half lead, punctuated by an Akin 3-pointer — his first made three of his career.

"He's 1-for-1; he's never allowed to shoot again," Odom quipped.

Rounding out the Aggies' effort was Steven Ashworth, who finished with 14 points, and 9 points from Funk and Sean Bairstow. The defense played, arguably, its best game of the conference season and held the Bulldogs to below 35% shooting from the field and below 60 points for just the fourth time this season.

"We were pretty simple with the game plan," Odom said. "I thought our guys did a great job. And we switched, you know, quite a bit.

"Our defense was pretty good a couple of weeks ago, relative to the country, and took a little bit of a hit (in conference play)," Odom added. "We have to make sure that we're guarding at a really high level as we go deeper into the season."

The Aggies host New Mexico at 8:30 p.m. MST on Wednesday.

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