Utah State kicks off the Jerrod Calhoun era with a 55-point victory

LOGAN — Having a couple more days to get acclimated to the elevation in the Beehive State clearly didn’t help Alcorn State. After losing at Utah by 41 points on Monday, the Braves were battered by Utah State Wednesday night at the Spectrum, 101-46.

The 55-point victory was the first at USU for new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, who was hired last spring after seven seasons at Youngstown State.

“I really wasn’t nervous,” Calhoun said of coaching his first official game on Stew Morrill Court. “I told the guys, ‘You’re nervous when you have bad players.’ And I’ve been nervous a lot of years. … But we had a great week of prep, and I really wanted to show our fans the kind of style we’re going to play.

“We’re going to try really, really hard to get stops. We’re going to let guys have freedom. We’re going to shoot 3s. We’re going to use our depth. And we’re going to wear teams down.”

The Aggies (1-0) definitely did all of those things in the first half. After trailing 10-8 in the first five minutes, the home team reeled off 34 straight points over the next 11:15 to the delight of the crowd of 8,131.

The 34-0 spurt was the longest by a USU team since putting together a 37-0 run over two halves at Idaho in 2006.

“I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and I worked for a Hall of Fame coach in Bob Huggins, who is maybe the best defensive coach of all time in college. And that was as good as I’ve ever seen,” Calhoun declared. “There was a 10-minute stretch there they couldn’t score. And I think that’s because the attention to detail from our team all week was really, really good.”

The standout athlete for Utah State was senior center Aubin Gateretse, who played his first 30 minutes as an Aggie without missing a shot. The transfer from Stetson finished 11 for 11 from the floor and 2 for 2 from the free-throw line on his way to scoring a team-high 24 points.

“He’s been a guy who kind of struggled in our two scrimmages,” Calhoun said of Gateretse. “So, he was a guy who had an attitude this week. He was very determined and did a lot of extra work with Coach (Mantoris) Robinson.”

Gateretse, who did most of his damage off of lobs from teammates and offensive putbacks, came one made field goal away from tying USU’s all-time shooting record for a game. Mike Santos went 12 for 12 against Idaho State on Jan. 12, 1978.

“It was just so fun,” Gateretse said. “I know that if I do my job of setting screens really hard that my teammates are going to make the right reads because we’ve been working so hard on it. We’re still a new team, but we’ve worked so hard together since the summer, and everyone is locked in and willing to share the ball.”

The Aggies racked up 28 assists on 37 field goals while committing just nine turnovers.

Calhoun played 13 different players, 11 of whom scored at least one basket. Sophomore forward Pavle Stosic was the only player on the roster not to see time, and Calhoun said he is planning to redshirt the transfer from Gonzaga this season.

Graduate guard Ian Martinez and sophomore wing Tucker Anderson each scored 12 points for Utah State, while junior center Isaac Johnson ended up with 11 points and seven rebounds. The Aggies shot 51.4% as a team, including a 12-for-31 performance from 3-point range.

“It was a great game, man,” Gateretse proclaimed. “The team came out ready, which really started with the last week of preparation. Everybody was locked in and bought into the coaching, so we just came out and tried to have fun and execute the game plan.”

Alcorn State (0-2), which trailed 50-31 at halftime against the Utes before falling 100-59, fared even worse at the Spectrum. The Braves connected on just 5 of 27 field-goal attempts (18.5%) in the first half and trailed 52-14 at intermission.

“We played against a really good basketball team tonight, and in a brutal environment,” ASU head coach Landon Bussie said. “It was a tough game. I think we started the game up 10-8, and the next thing you know the score was 50-12. I was just happy get out of Utah.”

Senior guard Keionte Cornelius (11 points) and sophomore guard Jalyke Gaines-Wyatt (10 points) were the only players to score in double figures for the Braves, who shot 29% for the game and committed 20 turnovers.

Calhoun pointed out that the game was already on USU’s schedule before he was hired to replace Danny Sprinkle, who left for Washington after one extremely successful season at the helm of the Aggies.

“I talked to their coach before the game, and he said one big reason they came to Logan and Utah is because they wanted to play in one of the best environments in college basketball to get his team ready for conference play.

“… So, the respect factor nationally for the Spectrum, and The HURD, and our season-ticket holders and the environment we create is second-to-none. And it’s why I value this job with such high regard. It really fits me and my family, and I just feel very, very humbled to be the coach here.”

The Aggies, who open the season with four straight home games, will host Charlotte Saturday afternoon.