Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cody Martin leads UNR past Utah State, 93-87

LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Cody Martin made the loss of starting point guard Lindsey Drew sting a little bit less for UNR.

Martin led the 24th-ranked Wolf Pack to one of their finest all-around offensive performances of the season in a 93-87 win over Utah State on Saturday. The junior scored a career-high 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting.

Martin took over point guard duties after Drew ruptured his right Achilles tendon in Wednesday's 77-72 victory over Boise State. Against Utah State, it was up to Martin to both facilitate and initiate the offense.

"It's hard to try to pick up his role because he's a really really big part of our team," Martin said. "Our biggest facilitator. One of our leaders. He's a really good player, so you can't really take his spot. The biggest thing for me is to try to be a little bit more aggressive, make sure I take care of the ball."

UNR didn't miss a beat.

The Wolf Pack (23-5, 11-2 Mountain West) shot 59.3 percent from the field — including 11-of-21 from 3-point range — to pull away from the Aggies. Caleb Martin, Cody's twin brother, added 23 points and Jordan Caroline chipped in with 20 points for the Wolf Pack.

Koby McEwen scored a career-high 32 points and Sam Merrill added 16 to lead Utah State. The Aggies (14-14, 7-8) have lost 14 straight to ranked opponents and fell to the Wolf Pack at home for just the second time in five games.

"That's as hard a team to defend as I've seen come through here in a long time," Aggies coach Tim Duryea said. "Our guys, effort-wise, (were) good on the defensive end. We did a lot of really good things, but they made tough shot after tough shot after tough shot."

Utah State was the hotter team from the field early, going 13 of 19 (68.4 percent) in the first 12 minutes. UNR used a 17-0 run late in the first half to take its first double-digit lead at 47-37. Cody Martin converted a four-point play to ignite the run, and Hallice Cooke and Kendall Stephens put the Wolf Pack in front with back-to-back 3-pointers.

UNR ultimately took a 52-40 halftime lead as Utah State missed 12 of 13 shots over the final 7:19 of the first half.

"When we get defensive stops, we get up the floor so quick," Wolf Pack coach Eric Musselman said. "When we made those stops, we got into that spurtability where we could just run, run, run and get transition threes or layups."

The Aggies trimmed the lead to 72-66 on a dunk from DeAngelo Isby with 8:32 left. UNR kept Utah State from getting any closer by hitting six straight baskets over a five-minute stretch. Caroline finished the string with a 3-pointer that put the Wolf Pack up 87-75 with 3:10 remaining.

McEwen ran off eight points in a minute, capped by a hammer dunk, to cut UNR's lead to 91-87 with 14.6 seconds left. Caleb Martin sealed the win on a pair of free throws with 7.6 seconds remaining.