The Utah State Aggies just grabbed a statement win.
Through four games under new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, the Utah State Aggies had looked impressive, averaging exactly 104 points per game and a margin of victory of exactly 40 points in four wins.
The thing was, the Aggies didn’t play any team that is expected to be near their level, as Alcorn State, Westminster and Montana all play in lesser conferences than the Mountain West and Charlotte was picked to finish eighth in the 13-team AAC, which is considered about on par with the MW.
Finally on Friday night, Utah State faced a team in the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten that not only was more its equal, but was thought to be better, and accordingly was considered a comfortable favorite.
With the contest being played on a neutral floor in Kansas City, Utah State kept things close for the first 28 minutes or so and then used a surge to take the lead partway through the second half and held on down the stretch to claim the 77-69 victory and move to 5-0 on the season.
With the loss, an Iowa team that is considered to be a potential NCAA Tournament squad moved to 5-1 on the campaign.
The Aggies got off to a nice start and led for most of the first 10 minutes of the game. Things were pretty even throughout most of the rest of the first half, though Iowa put together a little run and led by four at halftime.
At the 12:52 mark of the second half the Hawkeyes went up by four on a dunk from leading scorer Payton Sandfort, but the Aggies responded with a 9-0 run over the next 3:42 to go up by five, 58-53.
Things stayed close for the next few minutes but Iowa never got closer than a point and Utah State created some distance, largely behind Mason Falslev and Karson Templin.
A dunk from Central Arkansas transfer Tucker Anderson with 54 seconds to play quelled any remaining chance the Hawkeyes had at a comeback after they had cut the deficit from seven to four on a 3 by Brock Harding.
Falslev led all scorers with 25 points and finished with a double-double, as he added 12 rebounds to go along with three assists, two steals and a block.
Ian Martinez added 13 points and Anderson finished with 10. That pair stuffed the stat sheet, combining for 11 rebounds, eight steals, seven assists, and two blocks.
Team-wise, things were rather even statistically except for rebounds and fast break points. The Aggies outrebounded the Hawkeyes 47-31 and scored 21 fast break points compared to just four for Iowa.
Next up for Utah State is a Thanksgiving Day game against St. Bonaventure at Disney World.
