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LOGAN — After Utah State’s wild 83-65 home win over UNLV on Tuesday night, three different people from the Aggies’ roster pointed to one key difference between the Aggies’ 35-point first half and 48-point second half.
It wasn’t Chris Smith scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points after halftime, nor was it David Collette connecting on all seven of his attempts from the field for 17 points to go along with four rebounds and a pair of assists. It wasn’t Darius Perkins’ clutch 17-point effort on a cool 6-of-10 shooting night.
Collette, wing Jalen Moore and head coach Stew Morrill pointed to one key to Utah State’s success over its rival since the two teams’ heated grudge matches in their days in the Big West Conference: defense.
“We weren’t playing defense in the first half, and we did in the second half,” Collette said simply. “The stats will show it; we played offense the whole game, but our defense struggled in the first half. That’s all we talked about at halftime, and then we came out and performed.”
Utah State (17-10, 10-5 MWC) outscored its Las Vegas rival 48-27 in the second half, keyed primarily by the defense and an onslaught by Smith, Collette, Perkins and Moore.
Moore, who shot just 2-of-7 from the field in the first half, scored 11 points after the break to finish with 16 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“We came out ready to play in the second half,” Moore said. “We were giving them too many easy buckets in the first half, and we came out and played better defense.”
After trailing 38-35 following a streaky opening half, Smith opened the final 20 minutes on a personal five-point spurt, spearheading a 9-0 run that saw the Aggies go in front 44-38 on Collette’s hook shot with 17:20 left in the game. The home team would never trail the remainder of the way.
Unlike in the first half, when any run by Utah State would be offered by a lengthy recourse by UNLV, the Aggies stopped the Runnin’ Rebels (15-13, 6-9 MWC) every time they tried to get back into the game. Goodluck Okonoboh pulled UNLV within two points at 55-53 with 9:38 remaining, but it would be the closest the Rebels would get after Collette and Perkins led a seven-point barrage in the ensuing 1:37.
“We definitely defended much better in the second half,” said Morrill, who will coach his final game at the Spectrum next Saturday. “I think we finally started to understand them. I like to think we were part of them wearing down a bit. In the first half, we were playing really good offense — and we were behind at halftime because we just couldn’t get any stops. They made a lot of shots, but I didn’t think we were near active enough defensively.”
As the Aggies celebrated late in the penultimate home game in Morrill’s coaching tenure at the Spectrum in front of 9,503 fans, reserve JoJo McGlaston turned to the student section and struck the word “Aggies” emblazoned on his jersey. The nod was to the fans who came out during Tuesday night’s 32-degree chill, but it also signified Utah State’s team-first attitude as it put together its fifth-straight win and reached double digit wins in a Mountain West Conference that picked it to finish near the bottom in the preseason.
Utah State dished out 24 assists on 31 made shots, with Smith leading the way with five helpers and Perkins and McGlaston passing out four apiece. Henry Bolton had the assist of the night, swinging a perfectly placed pass in front of Collette, who charged into the key and ran onto the end of it for a thunderous dunk that put the Aggies up 59-53 with 8:56 left in the game.
“We’re sharing the ball right now. That’s something that we’ve always done well through the years,” Morrill said. “We’ve worked really hard with this new group, most of them in their first year of Division I basketball, and we’ve worked really hard on driving and kicking. We’ve focused more and more on good-to-great passes; if you make one good shot, then you make one more (pass) and your teammate has a great shot.”
UNLV opened the game on a hot streak, connecting on its first five shots and going up 7-4 on Jelan Kendrick’s 3-pointer with 17:43 left in the half. But the Aggies responded with some streaky shooting of their own, and Elston Jones’ layup with 13:38 remaining tied the game at 14-14.
By the second half, that streakiness had ended — except on the offensive end, where Utah State went on several 5-0, 6-0 and 9-0 runs to take control. Moore's 3-pointer from the right corner capped a dominant 16-0 run for the Aggies and gave the home team a 75-57 lead with 3:55 left to play.
Utah State also made 6-of-8 3-pointers in the second half, finishing the game connecting on 55 percent from deep. The Aggies shot 54.4 percent from the field.
“Everyone is stepping up when they need to,” Moore said. “If someone is having an off day, someone else is picking them up. Our guys off the bench are coming in and fueling us, giving us energy. They’re playing great.”
Morrill pulled all of his starters in the final minute, lending time on the floor to newcomers and reserve role players like Sam Orchard, Konner Frey and Las Vegas native Viko Noma’aea.
“We all want to win, and we’re hungry for wins,” Moore said. “Five games in a row in the Mountain West is pretty good. It’s a huge confidence boost for us. Now we’re going on the road to two hard places to play, so we’ve just got to bring it to those places, too.”
