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Logan • Utah State coach Stew Morrill knew it would take time for his inexperienced team to grow up.

But only 20 minutes?

Even Morrill was shocked by what he saw.

Down by 18 points at halftime, Utah State went from awful to awesome and rallied for a 72-61 win over Weber State on Friday night at the Spectrum.

"Basketball," Morrill said, "is a strange game."

Redshirt freshman David Collette scored 22 points and sophomore Jalen Moore added 20 to help the Aggies do what seemed impossible — turn a 47-29 halftime deficit into victory.

"I'm really proud of our guys," Morrill said. "We were about as bad as could be in the first half. We couldn't guard them. We couldn't make a shot. ...

"At halftime, we didn't talk about winning. We just said, 'We're not that bad. We can play better than that. So let's see if we can kind of cut into it as we go.'"

In the second half, Weber State scored 14 points — four in the final minute.

Meanwhile, Utah State shot 55 percent and used runs of 8-0 and 17-0 to claim an almost unbelievable season-opening win.

"We made a lot of plays in the second half," Morrill said. "We were a different basketball team. It was crazy. ... I couldn't believe the scoreboard. I looked and it was like, 'What? We're ahead? How did this happen?' Like I said, basketball is a strange game. You never know what's going to happen."

According to Moore, Morrill got the Aggies on the right track during halftime by "just telling us we were playing bad — telling us that was probably the worst defense he had ever seen. ...

"We came out fired up because we didn't want that to happen again. Nobody should come in here and blow us out like what they were doing to us."

Told of the credit he received from Moore, Morrill laughed.

"It's good to hear I can still do that," he said. "But I wasn't real happy. That [first half] didn't look like anything I've seen in practice. It was disturbing how anxious we were."

Weber State jumped to a 28-14 lead. By halftime, all five starters had scored at least seven points and the Wildcats were cruising.

In the second half, however, Utah State scored the first eight points and Weber State never seemed comfortable against the Aggie zone defense.

With 10:24 left, freshman Julion Pearre made two free throws to tie the game, 53-53. Collette followed with a dunk, giving Utah State its first lead.

The Aggies never stopped.

"We stepped up our game," said Moore. "... We executed our plays and got some easy lay-ups. That helps your confidence."

Coach Randy Rahe didn't blame the Wildcats' cold-shooting in the second half for the loss.

"It wasn't about [missing] shots," he said. "It was about our defense. We feed off our defense. Everything starts for us with defense and we didn't get any stops in the second half." —

Storylines

• Utah State overcomes an 18-point halftime deficit and beats Weber State.

• David Collette scores 22 points and Jalen Moore adds 20 to lead the Aggies to victory.

• Weber State makes only two of its first 21 field-goal attempts in the second half.