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INDIANAPOLIS — Utah State's basketball season came to an end Sunday afternoon at the hands of Zach Edey and the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers in a 106-67 loss.
Edey was unstoppable all evening, leading his team in a physical assault of Utah State. It forced the Aggies to play a style of basketball that has not been their habitual style all season, looking for outside shots first and finding ways to win with limited points in the paint and second-chance points.
"I think there's elite teams and there's special teams, and they can be special," Aggies coach Danny Sprinkle said of their opponent. "When you have a player like Zach Edey, he's special. There hasn't been many guys like that in college basketball history. That's why I think they can just take it to another level."
Edey, the 7-foot-4, 300-pound big man, finished with 14 rebounds and 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting. The performance is one that has become typical of him. Edey swept all six National Player of the Year awards last season and is well positioned for similar success this season.
"He's great, he's easy to coach," Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. "He's, obviously, got some great physical skills, but he's pretty intelligent."
Edey and Purdue led the Aggies in points in the paint (44-18), in second-chance points (18-5), and in total rebounds (49-26).
To make matters worse for the Aggies, Isaac Johnson and Khalifa Sakho each picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of play, putting the team in early foul trouble. The Aggies fouled their opponent 13 times and gave up 12 points from the free-throw line in the first half alone.
The Aggies hung with the Boilermakers through much of the first half, leading several times; however, there was a short stretch where Purdue went on a 16-0 run and the Aggies missed more than 10 straight field goal attempts, all but knocking the Aggies out of the game before the end of the first half.
Purdue entered the locker room with a 16-point advantage.
The second half featured a discouraged Aggies team that was outplayed for all 20 minutes, leading the powerful Boilermakers to, at one point, an impressive 41-point lead and, ultimately, a ticket to the Sweet 16.
For the Aggies, several players finished scoring in double digits, including Great Osobor (14), Josh Uduje (13), Darius Brown II (12), and Ian Martinez (11).
The Aggies finished with a 28-7 record in Danny Sprinkle's first season as their head coach.
"(I'm) super proud of my team," Sprinkle said. "I mean, the season we had, it was historic for Utah State to win 28 games and an outright Mountain West championship, to win a game in the NCAA Tournament against a tough Big 12 team — couldn't be more proud of our guys.
"Darius, obviously a senior leader, our other senior, Landon Brenchley, what they did from a leadership standpoint, bringing 13 brand new players together was absolutely incredible," he added. "Shows what kind of character our team has."
Despite the final game, which Sprinkle described as "(running) into a buzzsaw," the Aggies' 2023-24 season will close as nothing but historic.
