The seniors showed out for USU, combining for 32 points as Martinez went for 14, Akanno with 10 and Gateretse with eight.

Utah State next plays in the Mountain West Tournament, which is March 12-15 in Las Vegas. The Aggies clinched the 3-seed in the tournament and will face the winner of No. 6 UNLV and No. 11 Air Force at 9:30 p.m. MDT Thursday, March 13, on CBS Sports Network.

Akanno made the day even more memorable as he hit a major career milestone, scoring the 1,000th point of his career on a triple from the right wing. The five-year college basketball journeyman has scored 272 of his now 1,001 career points in an Aggie uniform after transferring in from Oregon State.

In the final tune-up before next week’s Mountain West Tournament, the Aggies put on a show from the start. USU scored 50 first-half points and never trailed.

The Aggies put together one of their most efficient stretches of basketball of the season in the first half, connecting on 70% (19-of-27) of their shots from the floor and 10 of their 15 3-pointers. USU recorded 10 first-half assists with just two turnovers.

In total, Utah State forced 19 Air Force turnovers while committing just eight of their own, scoring 26 points off of those takeaways. Senior guard Deyton Albury recorded a team-high three steals. The Aggies also outscored the Falcons 13-0 on fast breaks.

“Senior Day, great crowd. The last thing we wanted to do was disappoint. It’s really about our defense and not being a finesse team,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “In March, you have to be an elite, physical, tough-minded team.”

Leading USU in the scoring column was sophomore guard Mason Falslev, who went for a game-high 18 points with a team-high seven rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals in just 23 minutes of action.

— Jaden Johnson, Utah State Athletics

BYU parts ways with WBB coach Whiting

PROVO — BYU women’s basketball head coach Amber Whiting announced Saturday that she will not be returning for the 2025-26 season as she and BYU have agreed to part ways.

Whiting took over the BYU women’s basketball program ahead of the 2022-23 season and served as head coach for the past three seasons. During Whiting’s time at the helm of the Cougar program, she compiled an overall record of 45-51, including a 19-35 mark in conference matchups.

Leading BYU women’s basketball into the Big 12 Conference, her Cougar squad notched two ranked wins, knocking off the 18th-ranked Baylor on Feb 10, 2024, and No. 20 Oklahoma State on Feb. 15, 2025.

Her Cougar squad made two trips to the postseason, the WNIT in 2023 and the newly formed WBIT in 2024.

With Whiting’s departure, BYU women’s basketball associate head coach Lee Cummard will now serve as interim head coach.

— Jon McBride, BYU Athletics

Big Sky renews media deal with Scripps

The Big Sky Conference and Scripps Sports announced on Saturday a five-year renewal of their media partnership through the 2029-30 school year.

The Big Sky’s primary media partner is ESPN; those two renewed their contract through 2029-30 two months ago. Going forward, ESPN will air four Big Sky football games, with at least two on ESPN or ESPN2, each season. ESPN will also air one men’s basketball regular-season game, plus continue with the four conference tournament games (men’s semifinals and final, and the women’s final) to air on TV.

The remaining games throughout the conference in almost all sports stream on the ESPN+ subscription service.

Scripps has served as the Big Sky’s secondary media partner for the last three years and has produced and aired 40 Big Sky contests. Some of these simulcast on ESPN+ and on Scripps channels in local markets. Scripps owns 18 stations across the Big Sky’s eight states, including Utah 16.

After ESPN exercises its selection rights for football and men’s basketball games, Scripps will air at least 12 football games and eight men’s or women’s basketball games each season.

Scripps is producing all Big Sky basketball tournament games, as well as the pre-/half-/postgame shows, this week prior to the ESPN-produced finales late in the tournament.

— Brett Hein, Standard-Examiner