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LOGAN — Utah State defeated San Jose State 82-61 at home Tuesday.
The win wasn't all that pretty, though. The Aggies allowed the Spartans to stay relatively close through a handful of erroneous passes and unforced errors without any intense defensive pressure from the opposition.
The Spartans weren't exempt from that style of play, either. Both teams finished with a combined 24 turnovers.
"There wasn't much of a flow," Aggies coach Danny Sprinkle said. "When we'd make a run, we'd throw the ball out of bounds for no reason, or we'd run the land and we'd pitch it up, and the guy's not even looking at the basketball."
The messy evening was perhaps most illustrated by a free throw late in the second half. Great Osobor missed the front end of a one-and-one, and nearly everyone, including some of the refs, forgot it was a one-and-one.
A Spartans player grabbed the rebound and threw it to the ref, who went to collect it, while Osobor came in to steal the ball. He did, but the refs blew it dead, resulting in mass confusion in the Spectrum. The refs eventually gave the ball to the Aggies out of bounds.
Osobor led the Aggies with 31 points on 9-of-15 shooting (13-19 from the stripe), and added seven rebounds and two assists. Despite his scoring performance, Sprinkle said he expected more from his big man.
"Clean up your free-throw shooting, you missed two or three wide open layups, you should have had 40," Sprinkle said he told Osobor. "Don't leave any points on the table."
"Yeah, (I'm) happy with 31… but you guys were all there. You saw some really sloppy turnovers, you saw some of his missed layups; he's too good of a player to do that. And, you know, he knows my standard for him, and it's really high."
Osobor committed six turnovers Tuesday, prompting him after the game to simply say, "I need to be better, to be honest."
Other highlight players for the Aggies were Ian Martinez who, in addition to an electric block on a dunk attempt, tallied 16 points on a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the 3-point line, and Darius Brown II who finished with a double-double.
The Aggies defense was crucial in their win, holding the Spartans to a rough shooting night of just 39% from the field and 22% from 3-point range, a low percentage for a Spartans offense that relies heavily on their three-point shot.
With their victory, the Aggies improved to 19-2 and 7-1 in conference play, leaving the team in first place in the Mountain West, a feat that should not be underestimated this season.
Recent bracketology experts, like Joe Lundardi at ESPN, have slotted five Mountain West teams into their projected NCAA Tournament brackets, more than the ACC and the Pac-12. The NET rankings has six teams from the conference in the top 63, with three in the top 22 of teams.
The win Tuesday also marked Danny Sprinkle's 100th career win, a milestone he credited almost entirely to his players and staff, stating that he didn't score a single point in any of those wins.
The Aggies' next matchup on the road against San Diego State begins a difficult stretch for Utah State.
After a nationally-televised game against the Aztecs on FOX Saturday afternoon, the Aggies play at home against Nevada and Boise State, then on the road at Wyoming and Colorado State, then back at home against San Diego State again. Wyoming is the only team of that group that has less than 14 wins.
"When you play in the Mountain West and you play at a level like this, every game is big," Sprinkle said.
