Nevada, Utah State earn big wins to open Mountain West men’s basketball play

Ten Mountain West men’s basketball teams opened conference play on Saturday, and two contenders had statement wins on their home courts.

To kick off the day, Utah State (10-1, 1-0) hit the century mark in a 100-58 beatdown of Colorado State (9-3, 0-1). The Aggies’ 42-point win was the largest margin of victory in the 87-year history of the matchup.

Six different Aggies scored in double figures, led by Mason Falslev’s 18 points, four rebounds and two assists.

“When you blow teams out, your numbers look great,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said after the game. “So our guys know, like, we need to beat everybody we can. If we have a lead, we can’t call anything off. You know, that’s the way the analytics world works.”

Colorado State star sophomore forward Kyle Jorgensen suffered an apparent knee injury in the opening minutes of Saturday’s game. He watched the second half from the bench on crutches.

“First of all, I hope (Jorgensen) is OK,” Calhoun said. “He is, in my opinion, one of the most improved guys in the country. So things changed drastically game plan-wise when he was out.”

Later in the day, Nevada (9-3, 1-0) controlled the action from the opening tip in an 81-66 home victory over Boise State (8-4, 0-1).

“We worked hard. We knew the magnitude of this game,” Nevada sophomore forward Elijah Price said. “It feels good to start off conference on the right foot. Coach was telling us all week that it was going to be physical, so we practiced for it. We prepared for it and we wanted to hit them first. I think that’s what we did, and that's why we won.”

Boise State head coach Leon Rice echoed Price’s sentiments.

“(Steve) Alford knows us and he knows that we’re a physical team,” Rice said. “He got his team ready to go as far as the physicality of the game. They were really physical, and they were the aggressor. Their technique was a little better. When you’re the more physical team, usually you’ve got to come out and hit first. And they did that, they came out and hit us first.”

In its first conference game as a member of the MWC, Grand Canyon (7-4, 1-0) jumped out to a big first-half lead and cruised to an 82-70 road win over Wyoming (9-3, 0-1).

New Mexico (10-2, 1-0) picked up a dominant 88-65 home win over San Jose State (5-7, 0-1) while UNLV (5-6, 1-0) stormed back in the second half to down Fresno State (6-6, 0-1), 84-72.

San Diego State (6-4, 1-0) played a strong first half at Arizona before eventually falling in the non-conference game, 68-45.