Utah State loses its first game of the season against promoted UC San Diego – Deseret News

LOGAN – It was an impressive hustle game that turned into a bad omen for the Utah State Aggies.

With five minutes left in the first half of Tuesday night’s game at the Spectrum, Utah State was defending a four-point lead against UC San Diego when forward Karson Templin dived for a long rebound and found himself in the middle of a battle for the basketball with a pair of Triton players .

In the middle of the crowd, Templin somehow twisted his body and landed on his head. His feet stuck straight into the air, carefully supported by USU guard Mason Falslev, who held his teammate’s ankles until his fellow sophomore was finally ready to get back to his feet.

Templin and the Aggies were awarded possession from the jump ball, but it was a sign that Utah State’s flawless season was about to be turned on its head.

UC San Diego abruptly ended USU’s best-ever start to the season with a 75-73 win on Stew Morrill Court Tuesday night, and while first-year head coach Jerrod Calhoun was disappointed in his first loss at Utah State, he was anything but shocked.

“I’ve been saying it for 48 hours: This is the best team we’ve ever played against,” Calhoun said. “I don’t know if anyone believed me, but I’ve been here for two days trying to figure them out and I think they’re really good.”

The victory was the eighth straight for the Tritons (10-2), who won by 24 points Sunday at Idaho and then traveled straight to Cache Valley to face the Aggies (10-1).

But after trailing 39-32 at halftime, UC San Diego hardly seemed fatigued or worried about advancing en route to becoming the fourth visiting team in the last three seasons to win a game at the Spectrum.

“I am extremely proud,” said UCSD head coach Eric Olen. “It was a great performance from us in a difficult environment. I know we didn’t get the full impact because not all the students were here, but we didn’t feel it until late. This is a heck of a basketball team, so it’s really a great accomplishment for us to get this win.”

The Tritons shot 46.8% in the game, but were able to overcome 8-for-27 shooting from 3-point range by knocking down several free throws. UC San Diego hit 23 of 27 attempts from the line in this game, including an 18-for-21 performance in the second half.

Senior swingman Aniwaniwa Tati-Jones did most of the damage, hitting 10 of his 12 free throws en route to 20 points, while senior guard Tyler McGhie led all players with six 3-pointers and 24 total points.

Senior point guard Hayden Gray added 15 points for the Tritons, who made the jump from Division II to Division I in 2020.

Utah State, which will play its first real road game of the season on Sunday at St. Mary’s, got a career-high 18 points from Templin, who also had seven rebounds and two steals in 19 minutes.

Falslev, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, finished the game with 16 points and nine rebounds on 4-for-11 shooting, while guard Ian Martinez struggled even more, going just 4-for-17 from the field and 2-for-11 from 3-1. Point distance scored his way to a 12-point night.

Guard Deyton Albury was a bright spot for the home team with a season-high 15 points, but as a team the Aggies shot 40% in the game and a pitiful 28.6% in the second half.

Utah State went 17-for-24 from the free throw line, but managed just 8-for-28 from 3-point range while facing a matchup zone defense very similar to its own.

“It was just about us getting involved on offense,” Albury said. “They play pretty much the same defense as us, but we just tried to get into the flow and make shots. It was difficult for us to make shots in the second half.”

Now in his 12th season at UCSD, Olen led the Tritons to a 21-12 record and a second-place finish in the Big West Conference last season, and UC San Diego is poised for even more success in the 2024-25 season .

“This is a team that, if they make the NCAA Tournament – and I think they will – it will be a 13 seed against a 4 seed, and they will be an absolute nightmare,” said Calhoun.

“You have five players on the field who can pass, catch and shoot. They are old, they are experienced and the chemistry between them is right.”

The Aggies seemed to have very little of that, especially in the second half.

Going into the contest, Utah State was already down 6-0 and suffered a major blow when starting point guard Drake Allen fell to the ground after being fouled by Gray just over three minutes into the game.

The Westlake High graduate immediately grabbed him by the right shoulder and spent the right half of the game on the bench with his right arm in a sling.

“I’m not sure what happened to his shoulder,” Calhoun said of Allen, “but it was out of the socket, so hopefully we’ll get him back.”

In overtime, Albury went 5-for-5 from the field in the first half, including two 3-point attempts, to help the Aggies lead by as many as seven points.

But the Tritons quickly made it clear they wouldn’t go down in the second half as they scored the first six points after halftime, forcing Calhoun to call a timeout while the Aggies held on to a 39-38 lead.

Martinez, who didn’t commit a foul in the first half, committed four fouls in the first 13 minutes of the second half as he and his teammates constantly struggled to get shots to land close to the basket.

Meanwhile, the Tritons managed to go on a 9-0 run, thanks largely to free throws, to take a 56-53 lead with less than seven minutes to go and shock the largely student-less audience of 7,354 spectators.

The Aggies fought back with a rare three-pointer and two free throws from Templin, but Utah State’s final lead of the game was 63-61, thanks to consecutive three-pointers and a tough leaner in the lane from McGhie.

UC San Diego took a 71-64 lead on two free throws from guard Chris Howell with 53 seconds left, but Templin gave the Aggies a fighting chance by grabbing an offensive rebound, rushing outside and sinking a three-pointer in front of the goal Aggie bench.

The Texas native was fouled but failed to make a free throw, leaving UC San Diego ahead 71-67. A strip steal by Falslev led to a breakaway dunk for Utah State’s Tucker Anderson that put the Aggies up 71-69 with 20 seconds left, but the visitors made all four free attempts until the end and tied it with a key steal to ensure victory.

“Our guys won’t give up,” Calhoun said. “Our boys are tough, resilient kids. There’s a reason we won ten games in a row and were one of the last six teams in the country to lose, but it’s hard to do that day in and day out. It doesn’t matter who you play against.”