It was game three for USU facing off against Westminster, and the Griffins started strong, making the Aggies face their largest deficit yet. However, Utah State changed gears and answered by scoring 12 unanswered points, never giving the Griffins a chance to win after. Wednesday night in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum USU won 117-53 over Division II Westminster.
Once USU got going, the question was whether the Aggies would break their scoring record they accomplished playing Alcorn when they put up a massive 101 while allowing them to score only 46. The Aggies have now scored over 100 points in their last three games and are well on their way to being Mountain West Conference Champions again.
USU’s Rough Start
The night started with a disastrous cloud over the Aggies as Westminster held Utah State to only four points in the game’s first three minutes. Then the clouds parted, and USU scored 23 points in the next five minutes. Just before the 12-minute mark, Utah State pushed their lead to 20 when Karson Templin sunk a long three from the top of the arc. The Aggies turned it up on the defensive end and went on small runs of unanswered points, scoring 7, 9, and 10 to have 65 by the end of the first half.
They went into the locker room with a comfortable lead of 40. After halftime, the Aggies didn’t let up, even though it took a minute to turn it up a notch. Both teams couldn’t get anything over the other for the first six-and-a-half minutes. Then, the Aggies took off, starting with a 14-2 run in less than three minutes.
It’s Raining 3’s
The Aggies hit a trio of triples as part of the onslaught as Akanno, graduate Guard Drake Allen, and Martinez hit the threes to extend USU’s advantage beyond 50 points with over eight minutes remaining. Falslev later hit another triple to cap off a 31-7 run, which catapulted the Aggies to a 60-point lead with four minutes remaining. Utah State’s margin grew as large as 67 following a dunk from senior Guard Deyton Albury in the final minute before a Griffin 3-pointer brought the game to its final margin of 117-53. This is the first time that USU has opened a season with three straight games breaking the century mark.
How They Each Did
The Aggies shot 42-of-66 (63.6%) from the field, the team’s best shooting night since shooting 64.0 percent against UNLV in February of 2022. Utah State also went 17-of-31 from three-point territory, with the 17 triples standing as the most by the Aggies since hitting 18 triples against Colorado State during the 2022-23 campaign. USU also had 28 assists, making it three straight games in which the Aggies have registered at least 24 assists to begin the season.
Albury led the team with six assists, while Falslev and Allen finished with five helpers. Defensively, the Aggies held the Griffins to 21-of-60 (35.0 percent) shooting overall. Utah State had a season-high 16 steals, tied for the second-most in a single game in school history, trailing only the team’s mark of 19 steals against Pacific in 1984. USU forced 24 turnovers while surrendering possession only nine times, winning the points-off-turnovers battle 47-17.
Double, Double, Double’s
Six Aggies scored in double figures, led by graduate guard Ian Martinez with 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including a 7-of-9 mark from 3-point range. Graduate guard Dexter Akanno added 17 points, while sophomore forward Karson Templin set a career-high with 16 points off the bench. Sophomore Guard Mason Falslev, sophomore wing Tucker Anderson, and freshman guard Jordy Barnes rounded out USU’s double-digit scorers with 12, 11, and 10 points, respectively.
The Aggies also won on the glass, outrebounding the Griffins 38-29. Senior forward Aubin Gateretse led the team with seven rebounds, while Albury and Templin recorded six boards. Utah State will next welcome Montana to the Spectrum on Monday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. They have a record of 2-2 so far. Utah State will look to build upon their strong start to the season as they begin a tougher stretch of games.
