LOGAN, Utah – Utah State's men's basketball team concluded the 2022-23 regular season with an 86-73 Senior Night victory over Boise State in front of 9,963 fans on Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
 
The Aggies (23-7, 13-5 Mountain West) had five players in double-figure scoring. Grad forward Taylor Funk finished with a game- and season-high 24 points, to go along with a game-best eight rebounds. Junior guard Steven Ashworth had 19 points and a game-high eight assists for Utah State, which snapped a five-game losing streak to the Broncos (23-8, 13-5 MW).
 
Utah State honored its five seniors in Funk, Dan Akin, Sean Bairstow, Trevin Dorius and RJ Eytle-Rock prior to the start of the game. Those five combined for 56 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists and two steals on the night.
 
Boise State was led by Agbo Chibuzo with 18 points and Tyson Degenhart had 14 points.
 
Max Rice had been on a tear for the Broncos across the last four games. During that time, he was averaging 21.3 points per game while shooting 46.7 percent (14-of-30) from deep, but the Aggies locked the redshirt senior guard down.
 
Rice finished with 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, including 2-of-6 from 3-point range, and 3-of-3 from the charity stripe. Marcus Shaver Jr. also scored 13 for Boise State, to go along with seven rebounds and five assists.
 
Akin came off the bench to score 14 points for the Aggies, while Bairstow chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Max Shulga contributed 11 points, six assists and four rebounds.
 
Utah State had 24 assists on 32 made baskets, while turning it over just nine times. The Aggies also grabbed 29 rebounds, had six steals and scored 46 points in the paint – 18 more than the Broncos.
 
The Aggies scored the first four points of the game and led for more than 39 minutes. An old-fashioned three-point play from Degenhart gave Boise State its only lead of the night at 9-8 less than four minutes into the contest.
 
Twenty-three seconds later, Utah State regained the lead for good when Funk, who shot 9-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc, and 2-for-2 from the foul line, scored on a layup.
 
The Aggies led by as many as 20 in the first half and went into the break with a 47-33 advantage.
 
Boise State whittled the deficit down to six in the second half, but that's as close as the Broncos could get to the Aggies.
 
Utah State shot a sizzling 57.1 percent from the field (32-of-56), including 35.0 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-20), and 88.2 percent from the free throw line (15-of-17).
 
Defensively, the Aggies held the Broncos to 44.6 percent shooting from the field (25-of-56), including 33.3 percent from 3-point range (7-of-21). Boise State connected on 84.2 percent of its shots from the charity stripe (16-of-19).
 
NEXT GAME
 
Utah State now travels to take part in the 2023 Mountain West Championships at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The third-seeded Aggies will play the first-round winner of sixth-seeded New Mexico and 11th-seeded Wyoming on Thursday, March 9, at 9:30 p.m. (MT).
 
For more information on Utah State's men's basketball program, follow the Aggies on Twitter at @usubasketball, on Facebook at usumensbasketball and on Instagram at usubasketball. Fans can also watch USU men's basketball highlights by visiting youtube.com/utahstateathletics.
 
-USU-