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Logan • Like most others in college basketball programs around the country, Utah State's player have scattered for a short break over Christmas.

Forgetting Saturday night's 68-65 overtime loss to South Dakota State, however, won't be as easy as jumping in a car and motoring through Logan Canyon.

In what turned out to be the championship game of the four-team round-robin World Vision Classic at the Spectrum, the Aggies wiped out a 61-46 deficit in the final 5 1/2 minutes of regulation.

But they couldn't seal this deal.

South Dakota State scored the first seven points in overtime and held on to win the tournament after the Aggies missed two open three-pointers in the final seconds.

"We played really hard down the stretch to give ourselves a chance," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. "We just had a lull there. We just didn'thave much energy, for whatever reason. But give them credit. They have a nice basketball team. They'll contend for the Summit League championship and they found a way to win."

Sophomore forward Jalen Moore finished with 14 points and nine rebounds against the Jackrabbits, who won their seventh straight game and improved to 9-3. Utah State is 6-5.

"We had our chances," Moore said, "but we have to focus on playing harder. I think they played harder than us for most of the game. ... We have to play harder the whole game.

"We have conference play coming up. Every game is going to be hard. [But] if we play harder than any of our opponents, we can play with any of them. That's what we need to learn to do."

Utah State went 2-1 in the tournament, including wins over Cal State Bakersfield (57-56) and Idaho State (69-56).

According to Morrill, the Aggies got better offensively and finally started to rebound better while playing three games in three nights.

"The weird thing about basketball is sometimes you lose and forget the positives and win and forget the negatives," he said. "It's just that way, especially with our team that's so inexperienced."

Against South Dakota State, the Aggies definitely improved on the glass. Bakersfield (44-24) and Idaho State (45-27) both out-rebounded Utah State.

"Everything is fine if we figure out how to get a friggin' rebound," Morrill said after Friday night's win over Idaho State. "It's driving me crazy. So when we come back after four days for Christmas, maybe we'll use football pads. Who knows?"

The Aggies stepped up against South Dakota State, losing the rebound battle only 44-42. The Jackrabbits for only one offensive rebound in the first six minutes, when Utah State built an 11-2 lead.

"If we keep fighting," Morrill said, "we'll keep getting better. And that's what we're going to do."

Twitter: @sluhm The World Vision Classic all-tournament team:

• David Collette, Utah State

• Jalen Moore, Utah State

• Cody Larson, South Dakota State

• Aly Ahmed, Cal State Bakersfield

• Jeff Solarin, Idaho State

• MVP: George Marshall (South Dakota State) Utah State vs. Wayland Baptist

At the Spectrum

Saturday, 7 p.m.