Rally stirred HURD but Utah State outlasts GCU

Saturday, February 28

Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum • Logan, Utah

8 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Utah State

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

2/28/2026 11:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Paul Coro

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After trailing by 14 at halftime, Lopes took lead with 4:54 to go

By: Paul Coro

LOGAN, Utah – Playing inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum can feel at times like visiting a house with the garbage disposal running as someone fires up a leaf blower with the stereo blaring.

The noise about Utah State defeating Grand Canyon 74-69 there Saturday night will be about the Aggies closing in on their second Mountain West regular-season championship in three years.

All that rancor could not drown out what GCU has proven in four games against Mountain West favorites San Diego State and Utah State. The Lopes had won the first three and stormed back from a 14-point halftime deficit to lead with 4:54 to go at the Spectrum, where the Aggies had lost once this season.

Boosted by former co-leader San Diego State's loss earlier Saturday, a balanced offensive effort from Utah State (23-5, 14-4 MW) seized the chance to take over first place and closed out GCU (18-11, 11-7 MW), despite the Lopes showing how fearless and ferocious they can be.

"Our guys fought, and they gave great effort," GCU head coach Bryce Drew said. "They really challenged each other at halftime and huddles. It was fun to be part of. Obviously, we wanted a different result, but they made 11 3s. They made some tough, timely ones. It's not that we lost the game. They won the game by making shots."

After flipping its defensive effectiveness for the second half, GCU made it a one-possession Utah State lead three times in the final 90 seconds, but the Aggies answered each time with a score to take a one-game conference lead with two games to play.

The Lopes remain in a fourth-place tie with Nevada, which lost in overtime Saturday night at UNLV, but the Wolf Pack hold the tiebreaker with the season down to two games apiece for Nevada (at Wyoming on Tuesday, vs. Air Force at home next Saturday) and GCU (at Air Force on Tuesday, vs. Fresno State at home next Saturday.

The result was further darkened by a lower-leg injury to graduate power forward Wilhelm Breidenbach, who was helped off the floor with 10 minutes to go. He watched the game's finish from a training table in the tunnel.

GCU trailed by as many as 17 in the first after Utah State made 6 of 9 shots from 3-point range for a 29-12 lead midway through the first half. With the Lopes' drop coverage sending guards over screens and retreating big men to the paint, Utah State used pick-and-pops for its big men to make three 3-pointers in the game's first seven minutes.

Meanwhile, Utah State senior Drake Allen was still celebrating this month's birth of his son by making all six of his first-half shots for 14 points. The Aggies led 41-27 with the Lopes never stringing two scoring possessions together in the first half, when they committed eight turnovers.

It was a 14-point margin once GCU went the final 3:58 without scoring, but it could have been worse without junior guard Makaih Williams tallying 11 points and four assists before halftime.

"We've got to play every possession like it's a championship game," said Allen, who the Lopes faced when he played for Southern Utah and Utah Valley. "You don't just walk to a championship. None of us want it to be easy."

And the Lopes saw to that part. GCU uncharacteristically switched more defensively in the second half, which started with Lopes freshman center Efe Demirel deflecting a high perimeter pass and diving for the loose ball. Graduate guard Brian Moore Jr. also dived for it, leading to senior guard Jaden Henley's breakaway slam and a reignited fire.

Much like Utah State's 29-12 lead after the game's first 10 minutes, GCU went on a 23-10 run to the start the second half with Demirel scoring seven of those points, graduate power forward Nana Owusu-Anane making two 3-pointers and disruptive defense.

"We were reeling," Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said.

Two Williams free throws tied the game at 54-54 with 8:11 to go, and the Lopes took their first lead since 5-3 when Moore knocked down a 3 off one of Williams' six assists. That put GCU in front 59-58 with 4:54 remaining.

"I think their defense was elite," Calhoun said of GCU. "They're 19th in the country in defense. They make it hard to score the ball. They protect the rim."

But upon taking that lead, the Lopes did not score on their next three possessions with two consecutive turnovers before senior guard Kolby King made his only shot of the game, a 25-foot 3-pointer that put the Aggies ahead 65-59 with 2:57 to go.

"That was a monster shot," Calhoun said.

Utah State hit another dagger 3, more conventionally from senior guard M.J. Collins open in a corner, to take a 70-65 lead with 34.6 seconds remaining.

"They battled," Drew said. "They could've quit several times, and they battled and took the lead. We had a chance to extend the lead.

"I loved the effort our guys gave, especially coming from behind and being resilient in the second half."

Utah State, ranked ninth nationally for field goal percentage, shot 55% in the first half and 40% in the second half but only made six turnovers for the game.

The Aggies put four scorers in double figures and won bench scoring 30-6.

GCU senior guard Jaden Henley scored 16 second-half points to finish with a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds, while Williams logged 37 1/2 minutes for 19 points, six assists and five rebounds. The pair put pressure on Utah State's ability to protect the paint in the second half, when GCU scored 22 paint points.

"They're a hard guard because they've got three guards that can go downhill and put pressure on that rim," Calhoun said of Henley, Williams and Moore.

With Breidenbach out for the final 10 minutes, GCU played a six-man rotation with only junior guard Dusty Stromer off the bench. Without Shaw and Breidenbach, GCU's mission in the last two games expands from winning to drawing bigger bench contributions. If the Lopes do not beat out Nevada for the No. 4 seed, they will face the prospect of needing four wins in four days to win the Mountain West Championship and its NCAA Tournament automatic berth.

"He took a hard fall," Drew said of Breidenbach after crossing the entire court to check on him. "We'll get him evaluated when we get back. We sure need him. We need his experience. He's really helped us in games. With Caleb Shaw out and him out, you look at a lot of conference standings across the country and teams who keep their starters healthy and their top reserves healthy usually finish near the top. Teams who lose starters and lose people throughout the year, it's hard to overcome."

GCU plays Tuesday night at Air Force (3-26, 0-18 MW), which came as close to winning in its past two conference games as any. On Saturday, the Falcons led in the final two minutes at Wyoming and turned over the ball in the final seconds with a chance to tie or take the lead.

"Our starters are already playing so many minutes right now," Drew said. "We have a short turnaround. This was altitude. We had one guy cramping, one guy get hurt and a second guy (Owusu-Anane's late-game ankle turn) almost get hurt.

"Another bad altitude area (on Tuesday). We've got to rest our starters the best we can. Our bench is going to have to be ready to play Tuesday after all these minutes these guys played tonight."