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LOGAN — In front of an electric, sold out home crowd, Utah State beat 13th-ranked Colorado State in an intense back-and-forth affair.
After the Rams jumped out to an early 21-11 lead, the Aggies spent the remainder of the evening fighting to get back into the game. Utah State eventually cut the lead to 4 at the halftime break and work still to do.
Colorado State retained the lead through much of the second half until a 10-0 run gave the Aggies their first lead since early in the first half. Once Utah State took the lead, the Aggies didn't look back and beat conference foe Colorado State 77-72.
Aggies faithful immediately rushed the floor with the win, putting an exclamation point on a home victory that certainly is due in part to them.
"There's three things, three things certain in life: death, taxes, and the Hurd, and they were big time for us tonight," Great Osobor said after the win. "They are amazing, so I just want to give them a shout out. I want to give a shout out to all the people that came, that support us, and just keep coming. Enjoy the show."
"Spectrum magic is real," added guard Josh Uduje, who hit a few big shots that energized the crowd in the second half. "Great and I were told before we even played a game here, Spectrum magic is real. And tonight, we really did see it. The crowd was amazing."
Colorado State was led by Isaiah Stevens, this season's Mountain West Conference preseason player of the year, who scored 21 points and hit four of the team's eight 3-pointers, while recording eight assists. Stevens entered the game with the fourth-highest assists per game average in the nation, and facilitated a difficult offense to defend.
"They move the ball better than anybody we've played so far," Aggies head coach Danny Sprinkle said. "They're really aggressive. If they don't score off their action, now they're getting the ball to Stevens. So now, it's like you're almost sometimes better letting them shoot off their action instead of getting the ball back to him."
Nique Clifford and Patrick Cartier also scored in double figures (only 18 of the Rams' points were scored by players not named Cartier, Clifford, or Stevens), but both fouled out in the final minutes of the game (much to the delight of the Hurd), which hurt any chance of a late comeback for Colorado State.
Those fouls were especially beneficial to the Aggies, who made 20-of-23 free-throw attempts on the evening.
The Aggies offense was led by Osobor and Mason Falslev, who scored 20 and 18 points, respectively. Osobor also tallied 14 rebounds, 10 of which came in the first half.
The game, which will count as a Quad 1 victory for resume purposes, is a huge boon to the Aggies' strength of record. Utah State's win streak extends to 13, and their season record improves to 14-1 as they remain unbeaten in conference play.
Team Rankings now gives the Aggies an 89.9% chance of making the NCAA Tournament, with the most likely seed being a 6-seed.
