No. 23 Utah State will look to extend its winning streak to nine games on Saturday afternoon when it visits Grand Canyon in Phoenix.
The Aggies (15-1, 6-0 Mountain West) slipped past Nevada at home on Wednesday in their first game since being ranked this week in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Grand Canyon (10-6, 3-2), in turn, won five of six games before dropping an 87-64 decision at New Mexico on Tuesday.
Utah State will attempt to start the year with a 16-1 mark for the third consecutive season.
The Aggies held Nevada to 34.4% shooting from the field in their 71-62 victory over the Wolf Pack, who had won eight of their previous nine games.
“When everyone buys in, and we do the little things on defense, we are hard to score on,” guard Mason Falslev said. “It’s going to win us a lot of games hopefully.”
Falslev scored a season-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field. He also made all six of his free-throw attempts.
Falslev, who has scored in double figures in each of his last 10 games, tied his season high in minutes played with 39.
Utah State was victorious despite having its second-lowest scoring output of the season.
“For our guys to stay the course on a night when we only scored 71 points is a real testament to our defense and our toughness and our commitment,” Aggies coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “To just continue to play and do whatever the game presents, don’t assume anything, play possession-by-possession and stay present, I think we did that.”
Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew was ejected from the game with 10:51 left in the loss at New Mexico.
Makaih Williams missed a driving attempt before Drew came onto the court to debate the no-call. As he continued being on the floor, Drew was issued a second technical foul that got him ejected.
“We had a stretch there where we had some guys hit the ground hard,” Drew said. “I definitely wanted the first technical. The second one, I was very surprised, just to be flat-out honest.
“Very surprised and shocked that I would get a second (technical) like that without even have a chance to walk to the bench, especially when I don’t curse. I don’t degrade anybody. I don’t yell at the other team. It was really shocking.”
Drew mentioned he will emphasize that his team keep its physicality despite the free-throw discrepancy at New Mexico. The Lobos shot nearly twice as many free throws (28) as Grand Canyon (15).
“Usually, the more physical team wins, but it has to be fair physicality both ways,” Drew said. “I’ll stand up for our guys. They work hard. They fight. They put their bodies on the line. They’ve won three league games so far by being physical, and we’ll continue to be so.”
