Utah State defeated the Alcorn State Braves 34-0

Utah State is in full swing.

And on a large scale.

The Aggies, playing their first game under new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, used a 34-0 run in the first half to defeat Alcorn State 101-46 on Wednesday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

“These guys really had it,” Calhoun said after the season-opening win. “I've been doing this for 13 years and I worked with Bob Huggins, a Hall of Fame coach, maybe the best defensive coach of all time in college, and that was the best thing I've ever seen. There was a ten-minute period where they couldn’t score.”

In fact, the Braves remained scoreless for twelve minutes.

“We played a really good basketball team tonight in a brutal environment. It was a tough game,” Alcorn State coach Landon Bussie said. “I think we started the game 10-8 and next thing you know the score was 50-12. I’m just happy to get out of Utah.”

Utah State was led by senior center Aubin Gateretse, who scored 24 points on a perfect 11-for-11 night from the field.

After the game, Calhoun said he had never been involved in a goal like that.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “It was really fun to watch. … The nice thing is that we got results. When you come in and take over a program it's easy to talk about things, we do this and that and everyone talks about their culture. We're going to play fast, we're going to defend and we're going to play out that matchup zone. The best thing a coach can do is get the guys to participate. When they see these results they only give up 46 points, I don't care who we play, we can be pretty good at it and I think it's going to keep getting better.”

The 34-0 run was only the second-largest in Utah State history. The Aggies had a 37-0 streak against Idaho in 2006.

The NCAA record is Ohio's 40-0 run against Cleveland State in December 2020.