Aggies execute winning details in NCAA Tournament despite poor 3-point shooting

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Utah State defeated Villanova 86-76 in the NCAA Tournament despite poor 3-point shooting.
• The Aggies made only two 3-pointers but dominated in the paint with 42 points.
• Utah State outrebounded Villanova 37-27 and scored 28 points from 37 free throws.

SAN DIEGO — Utah State hasn't played a game where it made two or fewer 3-pointers since Dec. 16, 2023, when it shot 2-of-21 from distance in a 54-53 win over San Francisco.

Coming into the 2025-26 season, no team has won an NCAA Tournament game where it's made fewer than three triples and its opponent made 14 or more.

Add to it that the Aggies were 0-of-6 in the NCAA Tournament when making four or fewer 3-pointers in a game, which includes a 72-47 loss to UCLA a year ago, where Utah State hit just four threes in a lopsided first-round exit.

But on Friday, Utah State rewrote the history books in an 86-76 win over Villanova in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In the win, Utah State made just two 3-pointers on 16 attempts, picking the most important game of its season to have its worst shooting night of the year.

Not only could the Aggies not connect from deep, but Villanova hit 14 threes on the day, including nine in the first half, to turn what was a 9-point Aggies lead into a 2-point deficit at the half.

"I think they made some threes that were contested, and sometimes we made errors and gave them some open ones," Utah State guard Drake Allen said. "We knew they were going to shoot a lot of threes, and I think we got lost a couple times. But all you do is keep battling."

In a tournament where undersized or underdog teams frequently rely on the deep ball to lift themselves to victory, the Aggies couldn't buy a 3-pointer. Utah State has also struggled this season when the long ball isn't falling, as it has frequently relied on the 3-pointer as a crutch to open up the interior.

In the Aggies' conference tournament and now NCAA Tournament run, it has been a dominant physicality in the paint that's gotten the job done. Against Villanova, Utah State scored 42 points in the paint to the Wildcats 26.

"When shots aren't falling, you've got to get to the paint. I think we're a really good team when we demand the paint," Allen said. "We settled a couple times today, but we're confident in our guys shooting shots. But they're just better when we get in the paint, and we play off two feet."

Nowhere was this more evident than in Utah State's leading scorers, Mason Falslev and MJ Collins Jr. The Aggies duo combined for 42 points on the day, despite shooting just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

"It was a struggle to get the ball to go in the basket, but once a few go in, you gain more confidence," Falslev said.

Falslev and Collins each had 16 points in the second half, with Collins scoring 9 points in the final 3:54 in what he described as "winning time."

In addition to scoring in the paint, the Aggies imposed their will on the glass, outrebounding Villanova 37-27.

"When this team has an edge, and they play with a little bit of swagger and a little bit of toughness and resilience, we can cause a lot of problems," head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "We felt like the game would loosen up eventually. You saw MJ made some big steals. … Activity, defensively, I thought, was the difference."

A byproduct of Utah State living in the paint and dominating the boards was its ability to get to the free-throw line.

On Friday, the Aggies shot 37 free throws to Villanova's 13, scoring 28 points on those 37 attempts. Utah State has struggled throughout the year to defend without fouling and has frequently lost the battle at the charity stripe.

Against the Wildcats, Utah State defended inside without fouling while effectively drawing fouls of its own.

Despite Villanova's sharp shooting to start the game, Utah State's defense tightened up when winning time came. The Wildcats hit those 14 threes in the first 34 minutes but didn't make one in the final six minutes while the Aggies pulled away.

"We weren't making threes, so we knew we had to rely on our defense, and it kind of carried us over in the second half," Collins said. "We switched up a couple coverages late in the game, and it kind of messed them up, and they were kind of stagnant, and we executed off of it."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Mark Greenwood