Mountain West Regular Season Honors Announced, Steven Ashworth Named To First-Team
Mar 7, 2023, 2:08 PM | Updated: 2:16 pm
LOGAN, Utah – Steven Ashworth, Dan Akin, and Max Shulga each received Mountain West recognition for their performances in the 2022-23 season. Ashworth was named to first-team all-Mountain West with Shulga earning all-MW honorable mention selection by the league’s head coaches. First-year Aggie Dan Akin was named MW Sixth Man of the Year.
The league announced regular-season accolades on Tuesday, March 7.
🏀 #𝐌𝐖𝐌𝐁𝐁 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 🏀
⚔️ @SanJoseStateMBB
🔴 @Aztec_MBB
🐺 @NevadaHoops
🐮 @USUBasketball#AtThePEAK pic.twitter.com/eK79iOMKYh— Mountain West (@MountainWest) March 7, 2023
The Aggies closed the regular season on a five-game winning streak for a 24-7 overall record. USU finished 13-5 in Mountain West play.
Utah State is scheduled to begin play in the 2023 Mountain West Championships on Thursday, March 9 . They’ll play the winner of #6 New Mexico vs. #11 Wyoming in a game scheduled for Wednesday, March 8 at 5 p.m. (MT).
Steven Ashworth Earns First Team Recognition
With Rylan Jones, the starting point guard to begin the season, seeing action in just 13 games this season and missing the past 15 contests, Ashworth has been asked to do a lot this season. He was the only Aggie to play more than 1,000 minutes this year, averaging 32.9 minutes per game, and playing more than 39 minutes in a single game three times.
SPLASHworth!
Congrats to @stevenAsh_15 on being named All-@MountainWest First Team!
➡️ https://t.co/OTbjucgfL8 pic.twitter.com/QtgwolIg7S
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) March 7, 2023
Ashworth finished as the eighth-leading scorer in the Mountain West at 16.3 points per game. He led the league in free throw percentage (.889), three-point percentage (.450), and threes made per game (3.2). Not only a scorer, but Ashworth also led USU with 4.7 assists per game, the fourth-best mark in the conference.
RELATED: Splashdown: Utah State’s Steven Ashworth Named Mountain West Player Of The Week
The junior from Alpine, Utah notched a season-high 30 points against Oral Roberts in November. He made a career-high eight threes in an early-February win at Colorado State.
Ashworth was named MW Player of the Week on Sunday, March 5 after averaging 23.0 points, 7.5 assists, 3.5 steals, and 3.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 53.3 percent (16-of-30) from the field, 50.0 percent (8-of-16) from deep and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) at the free throw line in a pair of Utah State wins.
During Mountain West play, Ashworth ranked first in free throw percentage (.920) and 3-pointers made per game (2.72), second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.90), third in assists per game (4.83), third in 3-point percentage (.392), tied for eighth in steals per game (1.28) and ranked 10th in points per game (15.56).
Dan Akin Leading Mountain West Sixth-Man
Akin played his graduate senior season in Logan after spending 2021-22 at California Baptist where he started 33 of 34 games played.
The DANimal!
Congrats to Dan Akin on being named the @MountainWest Sixth Man of the Year!
➡️ https://t.co/OTbjucgfL8 pic.twitter.com/kY7N1aERk5
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) March 7, 2023
Acclimating to an entirely different role as the first player off the bench, Akin adjusted nicely to average 12.1 points per game. He led an Aggie bench unit that averaged 24.8 points per game. Akin finished as the league’s fifth-leading rebounder at 6.8 boards per contest.
RELATED: Dan Akin Leads Utah State To Gigantic Road Win At Fresno State
In Mountain West play, Akin ranked fourth in rebounds per game (6.89) and defensive rebounds per game (5.11), tied for 11th in offensive boards per game (1.78,) and ranked 12th in free throw percentage (.765). Akin averaged 11.7 points off the bench in league play, shooting a team-best 66.4 percent (71-of-107) from the floor.
Max Shulga Named MW Honorable Mention
Shulga returned to the Aggies after a summer playing for his native Ukraine in the FIBA U20 European Championships in the summer of 2022.
Shooter Shulga!
Congrats to Max Shulga on being named All-@MountainWest Honorable Mention!
➡️ https://t.co/OTbjucgfL8 pic.twitter.com/eUKTrUjjVZ
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) March 7, 2023
The junior guard was USU’s third-leading scorer, averaging 12.1 points per game. His four assists per game was second on the team and seventh in the Mountain West. In Mountain West play, Shulga ranked ninth in the league in assists per game (3.56) and 10th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52).
RELATED: Utah State’s Max Shulga Takes Home Mountain West Honor
Shulga finished the regular season playing perhaps his best basketball of the year. Scoring in double figures in his last six games, including five Aggie wins, Shulga was named the MW Player of the Week on February 20 after averaging 21 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in a pair of Aggie wins. He shot 46.4 percent (13-of-28) from the field, 50.0 percent (7-of-14) from 3-point range, and 81.8 percent (9-of-11) at the free throw line.
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Up Next
Utah State heads to Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2023 Mountain West Championships. The tournament will take place at the Thomas & Mack Center beginning Wednesday, March 8.
The Aggies will play the winner of sixth-seeded New Mexico and 11th-seeded Wyoming on Thursday, March 9, at 9:30 p.m. (MT).
The Mountain West title game is scheduled to tip off at 2 p.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 11.
Every Utah State basketball game can be heard on the KSL Sports Zone with Scott Garrard on the call.
Coverage of Utah State University Athletics from KSL Sports can be found here.
