Aggies control own destiny in final week of regular season

In preparation for Utah State’s Feb. 28 game against Grand Canyon, free T-shirts were placed on the backs of seats in the student section in an effort to create a Holstein-like look in the southeastern portion of the Spectrum.

Similarly, the Aggies basketball team’s prospects of winning a Mountain West regular season title this week are also very black and white.

Win at UNLV Tuesday night, and Utah State is guaranteed at least a share of the conference championship. Beat the Rebels in Las Vegas and then also top New Mexico Saturday afternoon at the Spectrum and the Aggies will be outright champs and the top seed in the conference tournament for the second time in the last three seasons.

“I don’t know anything about the tiebreakers; I couldn’t tell you what happens if we win a game, lose a game,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said Monday morning. “But we obviously know where we’re at, and we have talked about us being 40 minutes away from winning a championship.

“I think the kids all know that. There’s no need to hide from that. But it’s not going to be easy.”

Utah State (24-5 overall, 14-4 in the Mountain West) currently sits a game ahead of San Diego State (19-9, 13-5) and New Mexico (22-7, 13-5) with two games remaining. Grand Canyon (18-11, 11-7) and Nevada (19-10, 11-7) are tied for fourth, while UNLV (15-14, 10-8) sits in a three-way tie for sixth place with Boise State (18-11, 10-8) and Colorado State (19-10, 10-8).

The Aztecs play at Boise on Tuesday, then wrap up the regular season with a home game against the Rebels on Friday. The Lobos host Colorado State Wednesday night before traveling to Logan.

“There’s no pressure. We’ve just come out there and (done) what we do best,” USU senior guard Kolby King said of the Aggies’ opportunity to win a conference title and secure the No. 1 seed in next week’s Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas. “We know who we are. We know what we can do on both sides of the floor and what the outcome can be for us. So, there ain’t no pressure.

“I feel like if we just focus on doing the little things — play by play, possession by possession — that we’ll be fine.”

UNLV is the only team to defeat the Aggies at the Spectrum this season, and the Rebels boast arguably the hottest offensive player in the nation right now. Junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn currently leads the Mountain West in scoring with a Las Vegas-friendly 21 points per game, and the Illinois transfer also hit “blackjack” in Logan, going 8 for 12 from the field and totaling 21 points to lead UNLV’s stunning comeback in the second half.

The Rebels, who trailed by 14 points with 13 minutes remaining, ended up beating Utah State 86-76 on Jan. 20.

Gibbs-Lawhorn put up 27 points four days later in a home loss to San Diego State, then had a rough outing (eight points on 3-for-11 shooting) in UNLV’s 28-point setback against New Mexico. But in the nine games since, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound point guard has been making a late push for Mountain West Player of the Year by averaging 29.7 points per outing.

“Obviously, Lawhorn is on a tear — something this league hasn’t seen in a number of years. Just a terrific player,” Calhoun said. “… He’s really smart. That’s the thing that really impresses me. He can play off the ball. He can play with the basketball in his hands. He can make off-the-bounce threes and catch-and-shoot threes.

“He’s averaging 30 points a game for nine straight games, so obviously he’s extremely confident right now. And he’s a really efficient player.”

Gibbs-Lawhorn is coming off his best outing of the season, a 42-point performance in UNLV’s 85-83 overtime win over Nevada last Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The junior went 14 for 22 from the field, and 8 for 14 from 3-point range while playing 43 minutes for the Rebels, who have gone 5-4 during Gibbs-Lawhorn’s scoring streak.

This week’s conference player of the week, Gibb-Lawhorn’s 42 points are the most scored by a Mountain West player in a game this season, edging out the 40 points Utah State guard MJ Collins Jr. scored against Davidson on Nov. 23.

Conversely, Collins, who was the leading scorer in the conference for much of the season, has slipped to fourth (17.7 ppg) behind Gibbs-Lawhorn, San Jose State’s Colby Garland (19.9 ppg) and Grand Canyon’s Jaden Henley (17.9 ppg). The Vanderbilt transfer has cooled off a bit down the stretch, but he has still scored 12 or more points in all but one conference game this season.

Collins (14 points), junior guard Mason Falslev (21 points) and freshman forward Adlan Elamin (15 points) led the way offensively for the Aggies in their loss to UNLV, but Utah State didn’t help their chances by going just 17 for 31 from the free-throw line. Freshman forward Tyrin Jones (5 for 13 from the field, 10 for 12 from the free-throw line), who played at Layton-Christian Academy, added 20 points for the Rebels.

“They’re shortened their bench; I think that’s changed. They’re not playing as many guys,” Calhoun said when asked about how UNLV has changed since its first meeting with the Aggies. “The style of play is a little bit similar, but also different. They’re doing different things defensively.

“But the one thing that’s pretty consistent is that they’re very, very athletic. They’re also very long and they’re very good at home.”

If the Aggies, who also shared the Mountain West regular season title with Nevada in 2019, are to get past the Rebels, they could use more offensive production from both Collins and Elamin, who didn’t score a point two of USU’s last three games.

However, Elamin did play a team-high 35 minutes and put up 11 points in USU’s shockingly easy 86-66 victory at New Mexico on Feb. 4.

“When we put the team together in the offseason, everybody throughout the recruiting process talked about the right things,” Calhoun said. “They talked about winning; that’s why they’re here, right?

“… I think the winning DNA is really ingrained in this team, and you’ve seen that throughout the year. Every team goes through some ups and downs, but I think our guys have stayed the course throughout the college basketball season, and I think they see what’s in front of them, I really do.”

And if things go their way in Las Vegas Tuesday night, Utah State could potentially re-enact the end of the 2023-24 season when the Aggies secured their only outright Mountain West title with a dramatic 87-85 victory over the Lobos at the Spectrum under former head coach Danny Sprinkle.