Courtesy of Braidon Nourse

No. 6 UNLV’s 17-3 run midway through the first half momentarily made a game of Thursday’s last men’s quarterfinal of the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Men’s Basketball Championship.

But No. 3 Utah State was just a bit too much.

The Runnin’ Rebels used 10 offensive rebounds in the first half alone to be a nuisance, especially during their run. They led for 2:09, but the Aggies responded nicely. And their own run —17-7 near the end of the half — came from everywhere.

Tucker Anderson kicked it off with a pair of 3s. Aubin Gateretse hit a couple of jumpers. Mason Falslev a pair of free throws and a jumper. Finally, Dexter Akanno with a 3.

“That’s who we are. Tucker carried us for a while,” Aggies coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Dexter (Akanno) just didn’t have it tonight; he was 1 of 7; he had a lot of open looks. Deyton Albury wasn’t at his best.

“If we’re going to beat Colorado State and we are going to win, you know, I thought Aubin Gateretse played really hard. Stats don’t totally show it but eight rebounds is really good.”

In the second half, Karson Templin came off the bench and provided the spark needed to really find some breathing room.

Up seven just a few minutes into the period, Templin came in, hit a mid-range jumper and then a big three from the top of the key. A couple of possessions later, the Aggies’ energy guy had an emphatic dunk to put an exclamation mark on the run.

“Yeah, I mean, he gets nine (points) and six (rebounds). If you watch our team play, that’s what he’s done all year,” Calhoun said. “He went through a little bit of a slump, but he’s had a tremendous sophomore season. I told him the other day if we looked at where he came from last year to now, extremely proud of where he’s come. That three was big. I think that put us up (12) points and it really got our guys going.

“He provides that. I think every team needs a player like Karson Templin. He’s only going to get better, right? He’s only a sophomore.”

On the other side of the ball, Utah State limited the Runnin’ Rebels to just 13-55 shooting (3-20 from 3), which was the second-lowest percentage (23.6%) in MW tournament history.

The Aggies consistently made it difficult by swarming on-ball and rotating sharply. With only four steals and a pair of blocks on the night, Utah State wasn’t exactly getting explicitly rewarded for their efforts, but forcing that poor of a shooting night won’t fall on deaf Aggie ears.

Call it an exceptional game plan by Utah State, call it an off night from the Runnin’ Rebels, call it a bit of both.

“(UNLV) really battled the last eight games of the season. That’s not easy to do with that many injuries. That’s coaching. That’s leadership. That’s obviously buy-in from his group,” Calhoun said. “We told our guys if we’re going to advance not only in this tournament but in March, we got to quit being so finesse. We’ve got to be physical. We’ve got to be nasty. We’ve got to learn to win in different ways, right?

“So we have made adjustments in our defense. The last two games if you look at our numbers, they’ve been terrific.”

Utah State will face No. 2 Colorado State in Friday’s second semifinal, tipping off at 9 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network.