Logan • Dillon Jones had 16 points and Weber State handed Utah State its first loss, 75-72 on Monday night.
Jones added nine rebounds for the Wildcats (5-7). Junior Ballard scored 14 points and Dyson Koehler added 12.
Weber State shot 49.1 percent (28-of-57) overall, a season-high for an Aggie opponent. The Wildcats also shot 10-of-20 from 3-point range to rally for the victory.
“There’s momentum changes all the time in sports. You see it all the time. You saw it at the World Cup, you see it in football, you see it in basketball nightly,” USU head coach Ryan Odom said. “It happens a lot in basketball because it’s such a quick game. You have to give all the credit to Weber State and their players for making the key plays throughout that second half to give them the best chance to win.”
Steven Ashworth led the Aggies (9-1) with 16 points and five assists. Sean Bairstow scored 14 and Daniel Akin pitched in with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The loss ended USU’s school-record-tying 9-0 start to the season. The Aggies had started 9-0 for the first time since 1938-39.
“It’s a crappy feeling,” USU senior guard Rylan Jones said. “We’re going to think about this one a lot tonight and the things that we fell short on in the second half. But tomorrow is a new day and we’re going to come back with a better focus, more discipline and ready to take on tomorrow. Obviously tonight’s going to hurt and we’re all going to think about it tonight but when it comes to tomorrow, we’ve got to come back to practice and be more disciplined and ready to go.”
Ballard scored 11 in the second half to rally Weber State from a 43-29 halftime deficit.
“Credit to them. We punched them in the mouth and got off to a great lead and they did the same to us in the second half,” Rylan Jones said. “I think at one point, they were up 26-6 in the second half. It was kind of the exact opposite of what we did in the first half and then momentum. Basketball’s a game of momentum and a game of runs and we couldn’t stop their momentum and get it back on our side. We just kind of traded baskets and didn’t get the stops that we needed to get towards the end of the game. Credit to them, they stymied us on offense. They did a good job guarding us and they made our ball stop. We weren’t the same team that we had been for the previous nine games in the second half.”