Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
LOGAN — The Utah State basketball team swept a rare, day-night doubleheader against Seattle University last Saturday at the Spectrum. The Aggies first played a 40-minute exhibition game against the Redhawks, prevailing 88-76 behind 15 points from senior guard MJ Collins Jr. Then after a short break, some of the players — primarily underclassmen — returned to Stew Morrill Court to play an additional, 12-minute contest that Utah State ended up winning, 19-13. Unlike recent years when USU has played preseason contests against other teams that were closed to the public, Calhoun decided to promote this year’s clash with Seattle as a way to boost his program’s recruitment and retention fund. General admission tickets were sold for $20 each, all of which went directly to the Aggies’ NIL chest. “I thought it was a neat environment; a great opportunity for us to not only get better play against a good, quality team, but raise some money for the future,” said Calhoun, now in his second season as the head coach at Utah State. “So, I want to thank all the fans that purchased the tickets. “You know, college sports have certainly changed,” Calhoun added. “And we as a university have got to continue to strive forward and make those changes, this revenue-sharing (model) that we’re all going by. So, I really want to thank all of the people that purchased tickets. There were many people that purchased some that didn’t even come to the game, so it was really, a win-win today, I thought.” Attendance for the main contest was listed at 3,711, and the unique contest allowed Utah State fans to wrap up a week of Homecoming activities with an early look at the Aggies’ 2025-26 roster, which boasts five returners, five transfers and five freshmen. Collins, who averaged 7.4 points per game last season at Vanderbilt, is one of the transfers expected to help offset the graduation of Ian Martinez, the leading scorer from the 2024-25 USU team that won 26 games. And the South Carolina native certainly didn’t disappoint, scoring nine of his team-high 15 points in the first half while going 5 for 7 from the floor, 2 for 3 from 3-point and 3 for 4 from the free-throw line while playing just under 26 minutes. “I felt really good,” declared Collins, who played at Virginia Tech in 2022-23 and 2023-24. “Of course, I’m happy to be here. And, you know, I can’t, I really can’t (wait) until the Spec is filled up 100%. But yeah, for the first exhibition, it was pretty mind blowing.” Collins started the game, along with junior guard Mason Falslev, junior wing Tucker Anderson, graduate guard Drake Allen and forward Zach Keller, who spent last season at Utah. With the departure of Martinez (16.4 ppg), Falslev is USU’s (15.0 ppg) leading returning scorer this season, and the Cache Valley native ended up scoring 10 points against the Redhawks, finishing 3 for 7 from the floor and 3 for 3 from the free-throw line. Anderson, who has added about 20 pounds of muscle since the end of USU’s season back in March in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, went 5 for 6 from the field with one 3-pointer on his way to an 11-point performance. Junior forward Karson Templin, who came off the bench Saturday, much the way he did almost all of his sophomore season, finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while senior guard Kolby King, a transfer from Butler, also added 11 points. Considering that the Aggies still “don’t have anything in offensively,” Calhoun was pleased with Utah State putting up 49 points in the first half and 88 for the game; however, he wasn’t so thrilled that his team committed 14 turnovers, only won the rebound battle by three and let the Redhawks shoot 47.4% as a team. “This time of year, I think the two biggest things you’re really trying to key in on is your transition defense, and your ball security,” Calhoun said. “And it’s hard to play transition D when you don’t have great ball security. We threw the ball all over the gym at times, right? But when we don’t throw it to the other team, we’re pretty good. “We’ve got to understand ball security; it’s a game of possessions. … but I thought the kids’ effort was good. It’s a starting point, right? You’ve got to start somewhere.” All 15 Aggies on the roster ended up playing at least two minutes in the main contest, while nine Aggies scored. Point guard Elijah Perryman (three points and one assist in six minutes) saw the most action of any of the freshman in the first game, leaving forwards Adlan Elamin (five points) and David Iweze, wing Kingston Tosi and guard Brayden Boe the bulk of the playing time in the latter, 12-minute session. “I’ve never went into a game and played 15 players; I’ve never experienced that,” Calhoun said. “But there’s a first time for everything.” The Redhawks, who got a game-high 21 points from sophomore forward Will Heimbrodt, led the main contest just once at 9-8. But back-to-back 3-pointers by Falslev and Collins kickstarted a 17-2 run that gave the home team the lead for good. However, Seattle never totally went away, and after trailing 49-41 at halftime, closed the gap to just one point less than three minutes into the second half. But Collins’ second 3-pointer of the game helped to hold off the Redhawk surge, and Calhoun was pleased with how his team dug deep when it needed to. “We wanted them to play through some of the struggle today,” he explained. “And I thought we had a chance to do that. We could have left some other guys out there, but we weren’t going to do that. We weren’t going to play guys a ton of minutes. And I think that’s something you can only get in a game.” The Aggies travel to San Francisco this Saturday to play an exhibition game against the Dons before hosting Westminster in their season opener on Nov. 3.
