Aggies men break close game open in final six minutes over Spartans

LOGAN — With six minutes to play, it was anyone's game Saturday afternoon at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Over the final 5:49 of the contest, Utah State outscored visiting San Jose State 18-4, which proved to be the difference in a Mountain West Conference men's basketball game. The Aggies recorded a 96-78 victory in front of 8,972 fans to start the new year.

"I'm proud of our guys' second half effort," USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "We haven't played great basketball since the break. Our game at Fresno State was sloppy. Tonight, I'm not sure what defense that was in the first half, but what gets lost is how well San Jose State played. They're a very hard team to play against, they control tempo, they have good guards, they've got bigs that can pick and pop and shoot."

Despite being heavy favorites, the Aggies (12-1, 3-0 MW) led for just under 15 minutes of the game. Even when USU got in front for good with nine minutes left, the Spartans (5-9, 0-3) didn't fade until the final minutes.

"I thought the first half our offense carried us and the second half our defense carried us for the last 15 minutes," Calhoun said. "That's the sign of a really good team. Win with a lot of different ways, offense, defense, three kids off your bench step up."

The only question in the final minute of the game was whether USU freshman guard Elijah Perryman would record a double-double on Stew Morrill Court. Perryman did when found MJ Collins Jr. all alone for a 3-pointer with 38 ticks left on the clock. Passes to Karson Templin for a trey and and alley-oop to Garry Clark proceeded the final dime.

"I didn't even know how many assists I had at the time, I was just focused on winning the game," said Perryman, who came off the bench and finished with career highs in points with 13 and assists with 10. "I saw him (Collins), and he was open. In my opinion, he's the best scorer in our league, so if he's wide open, definitely give him a shot. It went in, so we were just happy and excited."

Perryman is the first Aggie freshman since Trevin Dorius in 2019 to record a double-double in a game. Perryman was also the first USU freshman in recent memory to have 10 assists.

"I saw Elijah play one time in the summer, and I said 'I want this kid bad,'" Calhoun said. "He is just going to get better and better as he matures and plays better defense. We probably don't win the game without him. … I think come March, he is going to be scary good."

Perryman had plenty of scorers to throw to Saturday. Collins led all scorers in the game with 23 points. Mason Falslev netted 17 points before fouling out late in the contest. Clark and Templin joined the double-digit group with 16 and 13 points, respectively, off the bench.

"Every time we play together, I tell them (Clark and Templin) what I see and they tell me what they see and we just go hand-in-hand together," Perryman said. "I love to get assists and get them buckets. I don't worry about scoring, just getting people involved. When I get people involved, everything flows much better."

Templin led the Aggies on the boards with seven, while Clark grabbed five. Collins came up with two steals, and Clark blocked two shots.

"I thought our adjustments were really good, and we got great effort from our bench," Calhoun said. "That was the third-biggest key that I had coming into this game, win with our depth. We saw Elijah Perryman continue to grow up. I think the sky's the limit for him. I thought Karson Templin and Garry Clark were absolutely flying around and played a physical second half."

USU shot 63 percent from the field, which just edged the 63.8 percent performance against Colorado State.

The Spartans were able to knock down nine 3-pointers in the first half, but just one in the second half as they suffered their fourth straight setback. San Jose State did shoot 50 percent from beyond the arc, just the second team this season to do so against USU.

"We paid attention to detail (in the second half)," Perryman said. "We got out to shooters and started reading drives."

San Jose State was led by Jermaine Washington with 18 points. Colby Garland added 17, while Adrian Myers and Melvin Ball Jr. each chipped in 13 points. Garland also had five assists.

"I thought it was a fun college basketball game for a long time," SJSU head coach Tim Miles said. "For Utah State, I thought Perryman was really good tonight. Falslev was so tough. Clark was really vital, and I thought that their second group was really strong, with Templin and that whole group. This is a tough place to win for a lot of teams, and we're sure one of them."

The Aggies scored the first four points of the game as Drake Allen was blocked, grabbed the rebound and scored. Zach Keller laid in a pass from Allen on the second bucket.

Then the Spartans started drilling shots from long range. After three lead changes and three ties, San Jose State used an 11-4 run to take a 18-13 lead at the 13:04 mark of the opening half.

A trey by Collins tied the game at 23-23, but the Aggie guard was hit with a technical. Garland made both free throws.

San Jose State used a 6-0 run to build its largest lead of the first half, 33-27, with 7:51 left in the first half when Myers hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

USU fought back, scoring six straight points to get back in front, 39-38, with 3:44 before the break. Templin scored on a reverse layup off a pass from Collins to put the hosts in front. They didn't stay there long.

The Spartans scored on back-to-back possessions to get in front and stayed there when the halftime break came. San Jose State went into the lockers up 51-48, hitting 9 of 15 shots from beyond the arc.

The visitors scored the first four points of the second half to take their biggest lead of the game, 55-48.

"Personally, it was just about playing defense," Perryman said. "There were a couple of guys that hit shots that we weren't expecting, so we just had to adjust. The biggest thing was just playing defense. We talk to each other all the time. We're all old enough to tell each other what we feel, and the biggest thing was that we just needed to stop them."

USU used a 9-2 run to knot the game up at 61-61 with 14 minutes to play. Clark and Perryman combined for all of the points as the crowd started to come to life.

"The crowd made a big impact," Perryman said. "The crowd was big, and our team staying connected was big."

Forty-five seconds later Perryman put the hosts in front for the first time since late in the first half, 63-62, with two free throws.

After five lead changes and four ties, the Aggies went on a 9-0 run to surge in front for good. Templin got it started with a bucket off a pass from Perryman, who then hit a 3-pointer. Clark turned an offensive rebound into two, and Collins came up with a steal and threw it down to the delight of the crowd to give USU a 75-68 lead with 7:45 to play.

"We were going back and forth, we kept trading buckets," Perryman said. "It came to a point in time where, since we work on our defense all the time, we needed to use what we can, our greatest strengths."

The Spartans were within four with less than six minutes to play when the Aggies blew the game open with a trio of 6-0 runs to notch their fifth straight win.

"We just need to keep plugging with this group," Calhoun said. "I do think the ceiling is pretty high."

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