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Aggies star forward Jalen Moore never expected to miss Senior Day. Despite his flirtation with the NBA when he declared for last year's draft, he always expected to have one final season playing in the middle of Logan's autumn leaves — the collage of yellow, brown and orange wooden folding seats in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

After all, Moore and his trademark afro have grown up in the Spectrum. A resident of North Logan and graduate of Sky View High School, he'll play his final home game at 7 p.m. Saturday when Utah State hosts Air Force. USU will recognize three seniors — Shane Rector, Connor Garner and Moore — before the game.

"I used to watch games as a kid, and me and Grayson were like, 'We want to go to school here. That'd be awesome to play together,'" Moore, 21, said while stretched out across two rows of seats in the Spectrum this week. "That very rarely happens that two brothers are able to play at the same place. It's hard to get a scholarship. Growing up, I always wanted to play here. I didn't know it was going to happen."

Grayson Moore, Jalen's older brother, wrapped up his collegiate career with the Aggies last year after previous stops at Sheridan Junior College in Wyoming and Division II Northwest Nazarene in Idaho. Together with the Aggies, they played in the same arena where their father, Jimmy, starred in the 1970s on his way to being drafted by both the ABA and NBA. An image of Jimmy dribbling a basketball hangs on the wall along the concourse of the Spectrum behind Section W.

"It's going to be bittersweet," said Jimmy, the university's assistant athletic director overseeing special projects. "I see it this way, it's almost like you're reading this book. You're reading this last chapter of the book. You're reading the last page. Then you close the book. It's over. I don't have any more kids. There's not going to be another Moore, at least from my lineage, to play in the Spectrum. It's almost like you're closing the book on the Moore legacy. I think it will be emotional for me."

Cache Valley roots

The Moore legacy began in 1971, one year after the Spectrum opened, when Jimmy came to Logan as a 6-foot-7 forward who'd been the high school player of the year in southern Mississippi the previous winter. Freshmen weren't allowed to play on varsity at the time.

"What was important to me was getting my education," Jimmy said. "I came from a large family. There was nine boys and three girls. Mom and dad, neither one finished high school. Neither one thought about going to college, but they worked very hard [so] that we had those opportunities."

Jimmy Moore finished with 1,164 points and 652 rebounds in three seasons. His career-best, 40-point performance came in the Spectrum against Wyoming during his senior season of 1974-75, a season that culminated with a spot in the NCAA Tournament. He was selected to the school's all-century basketball team in 2013.

"I was joking with Jalen not long ago — I said, 'Jalen. You owe us a 40-point game. You gotta have it in you somewhere before you're done,'" Jimmy said with a laugh and infectious smile.

Jimmy was drafted by Denver of the ABA, and his rights were traded to the Utah Stars. He later spent two seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics, then played 10 seasons overseas. His career over, he returned to Logan, where he has stayed since in a variety of positions with the college.

Brothers in basketball

Grayson and Jalen's first memories of the Spectrum are of basketball camps and watching games growing up. They played together on youth teams, and against each other in hotly-contested driveway games of one-on-one.

"It'd end in a fight — maybe not a fist fight, but someone would foul someone hard and we were like, 'We're done,'" Grayson said. "There was a few times where that would lead into, we'd go back inside and that would lead to a fight inside about something that happened out in the driveway. There was a lot of butting heads, a lot of competitiveness."

As they grew up, they heard stories from neighbors and people around town about their father's prowess in college. They'd hear about his ridiculous leaping ability, boundless energy for going after rebounds and a knack for ferociously dunking over opponents. Eventually, the brothers became dedicated to the notion of playing together for the Aggies.

A late bloomer, Grayson initially was turned away by the Aggies as a scrawny 6-foot-2, 160-pound project coming out of high school. He spent one season buried on the Sheridan bench, then spent the next two seasons developing at Division II Northwest Nazarene.

After Grayson's junior year, the Aggies lost a large group of players to graduation and transfers. Grayson, who had worked out with the Aggies players during the summer, approached then-coach Stew Morrill about joining the program.

He came aboard as a redshirt walk-on going into his brother's sophomore season. As a senior, Grayson played in 18 games, making four starts, before suffering a broken foot.

"I'll never forget the home game the first night he started," Jimmy said. "I was sitting there, me and my wife. I had tears in my eyes. The hair on my arm was standing up. I'm like, 'I can't believe this.'"

Local boy makes good

Aggies second-year head coach Tim Duryea was Morrill's top assistant when they recruited the youngest Moore.

"We always had our eye on Jalen," Duryea said. "He was always advanced for his age. Obviously, we know what kind of player his dad was. He was always long and athletic. You knew he had a chance to be a special athlete. As he came to our camp, we watched him. As soon as we could legally recruit him, we did. We actually offered Jalen before he ever played a varsity basketball game."

The sales pitch, largely based on Moore being able to play in front of friends and family on a regular basis, struck the right cord. Moore committed as a high school junior, later rebuffing offers from higher-profile programs.

Moore, who is averaging 16.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season, is one of 10 players in the program's history with at least 1,500 points (1,561) and 600 rebounds (631). He could finish this season leading the team in scoring and rebounding for the third consecutive time.

"I don't have any regrets about anything that I've done here," Moore said. "Every time I play, I play my hardest. I give it the best effort I can give. By the time I'm done here, I feel like I've done mainly everything I could do. I've got [two] games left to finish it out and then the tournament to see how it all goes down. When I look back at it, I don't think I'm going to have any regrets. I played my hardest. I made my parents proud. I made my brother proud, my friends proud. I made myself proud. It's just been a great experience for me. I can't wait. It will be a fun feeling. It will be bittersweet for sure, but it'll be something that happens to every senior."

Twitter: @LWorthySports —

Air Force at Utah State

At Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, Logan

When » 7 p.m. Saturday.

TV » ROOT

Radio » 610 AM, 102.1 FM.

Records » Air Force 11-17, 4-11 MW; Utah State 12-15, 6-10 MW.

Series » Utah State leads 14-4.

Last meeting » Air Force won 78-73 on Dec. 31, 2016.

About the Aggies » The freshman guard combination of Koby McEwen (23 points) and Sam Merrill (22 points) were the first pair of Aggies freshmen to score 20 or more in the same game in program history at San Jose State on Wednesday night. … Senior guard Conner Garner is expected to make his first career start in the final home game of the season. Garner, a resident of Raft River, Idaho, has played in six games during his collegiate career and recorded three points and two steals.

About the Falcons » Senior Hayden Graham, a 6-foot-5 forward, is the eighth player in Air Force Academy history with at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. Graham scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to push his career total to 501 rebounds in an 81-58 win over UNLV on Wednesday. … The Falcons' rotation has been revamped since the two teams last played. They've used six different starting lineups. The most recent group includes 6-foot-4 freshman Sid Tomes at point guard.