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Knotted at halftime, the Aggies made some adjustments and rained down 3-pointers in the second half to roll in their opening game of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic in Charleston, South Carolina, Friday afternoon.
Utah State actually trailed by five in the early going of the second half against Tulane in a Multi-Team Event men's basketball game at TD Arena. The Aggies made eight straight field goals during one stretch in the second half to get in front and cruised to a 96-75 victory.
"What I like about our guys is they can win in a lot of ways," USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "We are winning with our defense and rebounding. I've said this is an elite defensive team. The offense will come."
The Aggies (5-0) shot a season-high 62.1 percent from the field, including a season-high 52.2 percent (12 of 23) from 3-point range.
"We are a great shooting team," said USU guard MJ Collins Jr., who had a trio of 3-point shots and finished the game 7 of 10 from the field for 21 points. "We went through some slumps, but I think that's because we weren't sharing the ball as well. We found our rhythm today. … It was good to see everybody hitting shots tonight."
A number of Aggies shot well. Mason Falslev led the way, going 11 of 15 for a season-high 24 points. Kolby King was close behind, making 5 of 7 shots, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range for 16 points. Garry Clark also reached double figures with 11 points. Twelve Aggies played with 10 of them scoring.
"Kolby King made some timely shots," Calhoun said. "… I think they (Collins and Falslev) are two of the best wings in the country. They are really good. Kolby King might be our best shooter. We have a lot of firepower. We have a lot of guys that can score."
Falslev also led USU in rebounding (7) and steals (4), each season highs. King grabbed season-best six boards, while Clark also had six rebounds. Drake Allen dished out eight assists and drew heavy praise from the head coach after returning quickly from an ankle injury.
"We fully expect Mason to fill up the stat sheet every night," Calhoun said. "… Without Drake getting eight assists and running our team, we aren't scoring 96 points. Drake has been one of the best defenders in the country. He means a lot to this basketball team. He has been our most steady leader. He really defends and passes. Just a gutsy effort by Drake."
The Green Wave (3-2) was led by Rowan Brumbaugh with 19 points as he hit four 3-pointers. Asher Woods chipped in 16 points and pulled down five rebounds.
The Aggies came into the contest as 9.5-point favorites and scored first when Falslev turned an offensive rebound into a bucket. Falslev would score the first six points of the game for the Aggies, who raced out to a 12-6 lead four minutes into the game. Collins dunked a pass from Elijah Perryman to cap the surging start.
Then the Green Wave heated up from long range. Four of the next five field goals by Tulane would come from beyond the arc. The second two treys were part of an 11-0 run as the Aggies went more than three minutest without scoring and turning the ball over on three straight possessions. Scotty Middleton gave Tulane a 23-17 lead midway through the opening half.
Allen finished off a 6-0 run by the Aggies with a steal and dunk to put USU back on top, 28-27, with 7:29 left before the break. The lead didn't last long.
Tulane started swishing 3-pointers again, drilling a trio of them to build its lead back to six with 4:45 left in the first half. The Green Wave would not make another field goal before halftime, but did make four free throws.
The Aggies finished off the first 20 minutes by scoring six straight points over the final three minutes. Clark knotted the game at 40-40 with a rebound bucket. Collins had a good look at a 3-pointer just before halftime, but was off the mark as the teams went to the locker room all tied up.
USU turned the ball over eight times in the first half, which Tulane turned into 13 points. The Aggies turned seven Green Wave turnovers into 10 points. USU owned the paint with 30 points. Tulane countered from long range, hitting 7 of 17 3-pointers and making all nine free throws it attempted. The Aggies were 0 of 2 from the foul line in the first half.
"You have to give Tulane a lot of credit," Calhoun said. "They definitely played their best 20 minutes of basketball. They gave us a good punch. I told the guys to stay the course and things would work out if we limited their threes and guarded the ball better."
Tulane scored the first five points of the second half. Falslev swung the momentum the Aggies way with a 3-pointer. Thirty seconds later USU was reeling off nine unanswered points to get in front for good, 52-46. Allen drilled a 3-pointer to cap the run.
The Aggies would make eight straight shots from the field, building a 66-52 lead with 12:47 to play. Five of the made field goals were from 3-point land. Falslev drilled his second trey of the game to cap a 13-2 run and made a layup off a pass on the break from Perryman to give USU 71-53 lead with 9:32 to play.
"As the game went on, we got tougher and tougher," Calhoun said. "That's what you need to do, win with some toughness."
Tulane went nearly five minutes between field goals and made just one free throw during that time. However, when the Green Wave did hit a shot, it was from 3-point range, followed by another trey. The surge was short lived by Tulane.
The Aggies continued its onslaught of shots from long range and would make 10 of 14 in the second half. King made it 88-68 with 2:57 to play when he knocked down a trey off a pass from Falslev.
"Drake Allen made great decisions, and Mason (Falslev) had a tremendous game of passing the ball as well," Calhoun said. "We made the easy play (in the second half). … To have a bunch of threes go in was really good for our team's confidence."
Collins and Luke Kearney hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give USU its largest lead of the game, 96-72, in the closing seconds.
"We knew it was tied game, so we had to reset our mentality at halftime," Collins said. "We had to turn up our defense. Defense leads to easy buckets. We set the tone in the second half and were able to get out and run. Once we saw a few (3-pointers) go down, the flood gates opened for us."
The Aggies only committed two turnovers in the second half, while the Green Wave had six. USU outscored Tulane in points off turnovers, 24-16, and in fastbreak points, 44-12.
"Our calling card is turning the other team over and getting out and running," Collins said. "That was our focal point after the half. … We had some careless turnovers in the first half, including myself. We slowed it down and took care of the ball in the second half."
Now the Aggies will play in the championship of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic LowCountry Bracket on Sunday against Davidson (5-0).
