Mason Falslev scored 17 points and helped No. 25 Utah State stave off a San Jose State rally for an 85-78 road win in the Mountain West Conference matchup on Tuesday night.
Tucker Anderson added 15 points, Ian Martinez had 14, Deyton Albury 13 and Karson Templin 10 to help the newly ranked Aggies (15-1, 5-0 MW) win their fifth straight game.
Donavan Yap led all scorers with 22 points and Latrell Davis added 20 off the bench for the Spartans (7-10, 0-5), who lost their fourth game in a row.
San Jose State trailed by 11 with just under eight minutes left in the first half, but tied the game at 69-69 with six minutes left in the game after Davis and Yap hit consecutive 3-pointers followed by a layup from a Robert Vaihola.
Utah State responded with a 7-0 run, including five points from Falslev.
Davis helped get the deficit back down to three with 30 seconds remaining with a pair of free throws.
Martinez then wrapped up the Aggies’ victory with three free throws down the stretch.
Utah State shot 51.5 percent from the field, with Anderson and Falslev each draining three 3-pointers.
Templin and Falslev each had seven rebounds to help the Aggies win the battle of the boards 40-34.
SJSU only shot 41.7 percent but made 14 of 33 treys (42.4 percent), including a 6-for-10 performance by Yap. Davis went 3-for-6 from deep.
The two teams went back and forth in the first half until Utah State used a 10-0 run to go up 31-20. Dexter Akanno had the final five points of the spurt.
Yap hit a couple of 3-pointers to help San Jose State pull back within three, 34-31, before Falslev scored seven consecutive points.
Anderson’s late dunk gave the Aggies a 45-36 halftime lead.
Yap established San Jose State’s intentions to be competitive in the second half early on with a quick layup and 3-pointer.
Martinez gave Utah State a seven-point advantage with just under 10 minutes remaining, but the Aggies couldn’t shake the Spartans.
–Field Level Media
