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LOGAN — The 20th-ranked Aggies continued their hot streak against Wyoming at home Tuesday, beating the Cowboys 83-59.
After a disappointing first half where the Aggies couldn't create significant separation from the Cowboys, Utah State opened the second half on a 11-0 run, forcing the Cowboys to use a timeout just before the 16 minute media timeout.
Graduate guard Darius Brown II said the locker room message was clear at halftime.
"We're better than this," he said. "We're being soft, we're just letting too much slide, playing lazy. … (The message was) just fix it; literally fix it, that's it."
And fix it they did.
During the early second half run, Brown connected with Great Osobor for a pair of back-to-back fast break dunks, causing the crowd at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum to erupt.
"The place was just electric," said head coach Danny Sprinkle, who always speaks to the home court advantage created by his team's supporters. "(The fans) win games for us."
Brown and Osobor connected on two more baskets of the same type shortly after Wyoming's timeout. Brown finished with 13 points, 11 assists, and just one turnover.
"Me and Great have a great chemistry on and off the floor," Brown said. "Great is one of my best friends; he's a great guy and is my roommate also … so it's just easy to find him."
Thanks in part to Brown, the Aggies were, once again, led in scoring by Osobor, who scored 20 points and went 9-of-11 from the field. He added eight rebounds and three assists.
The Aggies played strong in the post, scoring 48 points on the evening, but struggled a bit from deep. Though the team finished shooting 6-of-22 from 3-point range, they made just one of nine 3-point attempts in the first half, allowing Wyoming to focus in on their interior defense and slow the Aggies offense.
The quick second half start was largely due to the Aggies' defense, which accumulated 11 steals and forced 16 turnovers while only turning the ball over seven times themselves.
Their defense and fast break offense went on to help propel the Aggies to an 18-point lead with just over 12 minutes to play in the game. The Aggies, ultimately, outscored the Cowboys 48-26 in the second half, using a bench-heavy lineup for the better part of the half.
The win increased the Aggies' win streak to 14 games, which currently leads the nation after Houston's loss Tuesday, and brings the season record to 15-1. But don't tell Sprinkle or the team that.
"We didn't talk about being ranked — not one time," Sprinkle said. "We were too focused on Wyoming. … We don't talk about that stuff. Now it's on to UNLV."
The Aggies game at UNLV Saturday is the first half of a two-game road trip that will end at New Mexico next Tuesday.
