50-point second half helps USU men’s hoops take down UNLV
It’s a play that has worked all season. Junior Neemias Queta pitched the ball to a teammate at the top of the key and rolled to the hoop. Soaring into the air, he collected a lob from freshman Steven Ashworth and threw it down on UNLV’s Caleb Grill for a tomahawk dunk.
The Aggies soared all second-half long in the Thomas and Mack Center on Thursday evening, turning a 24 to 24 halftime tie into a decisive 74 to 53 win over the Rebels in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas. They advance to play Colorado State Friday night.
After shooting 9-28 (32.1 percent) in the first half, the USU offense became unstoppable, hitting 19 of 34 shots (55.9 percent) and collecting eight offensive rebounds. Leading the scoring surge was junior guard Marco Anthony, who had eight points in the opening 2:26 of the second half and finished the game with 15 points, a career-high 13 rebounds, and five assists.
Queta, the Mountain West media player of the year, added 13 of his game-high 18 points in the second half and pulled down 13 rebounds of his own.
“We started off pretty slow in the first half, but as it went on we started to pick up a little bit,” said Anthony. “The meeting at halftime was about taking it up another notch, and we did that. It led us to the win against a very talented team.”
“Marco had a heck of a game in every facet,” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “That’s what he does…He’s such a dynamic player.”
The UNLV offense, which was stymied much of the evening, finished the night shooting just 19 of 59 (32.2 percent) from the field and 6 of 22 (27.3 percent) from three. They were led by junior Bryce Hamilton, who had 16 points on 7-9 shooting.
The Aggie offense looked lethargic in the first half, failing to move the ball effectively and create good shots for themselves. Even the easy shots — a wide-open dunk for Anthony that rimmed out — didn’t drop. UNLV played a part, their length and on-ball defense broke the Aggies into more of a one-on-one, single-dimensional team.
But in the second half, USU was dialed in.
The pace was quicker and the offense was more fluid, resulting in better shots and 13 assists. Anthony helped make it happen. Jumping and sprinting all over the court, the Virginia transfer finished the final 20 minutes with seven rebounds, and three assists. With 6:47 left in the game, he dove out of bounds for the defensive board to keep the ball in play, hustled down the court, got it back, and found Queta for the easy layup.
“Our guys did a great job of self-correcting and really played connected in the second half,” said Smith. “We cleaned up the offensive end. In the first half, we had eight turnovers, in the second half, we had two. Five assists in the first half, then the second half have 13 assists. We played with a lot more purpose and we settled in.”
It was an inauspicious start for the Aggies offensively. Queta missed two point-blank layups, and the team turned it over four times in the first 10 minutes. Still, USU was respectable from the field, 6 of 13, thanks to the play of freshman Rollie Worster. The only Aggie to shoot the ball well in the first 20 minutes, he finished the half with nine points on 4-5 shooting.
After an Anthony turnover with 10:54 left to play with the Aggies trailing 15-13, Smith yelled, “Tighten it up, let’s go,” and for a moment it seemed to work. On the ensuing possession, junior Alphonso Anderson knocked down a three-pointer from an Anthony assist to take the lead with 10:21 to play.
But then Utah State went ice cold.
Junior Brock Miller missed two contested threes. Anthony missed his open dunk and got a technical for hanging on the rim. Queta couldn’t get his hook to go down.
UNLV built a 21 to 16 lead while the Aggies shot 0-9 from the field. Finally, after 6:02 without a bucket, it was snapped by who else, Anthony, who got the offensive rebound and putback.
This sparked an 8-3 run for the Aggies to tie it up 24 at the half.
Opening the second, USU was outlandish. They opened 6 of 6 from the field and 3 of 3 from three to build a 39-33 lead with 16:26 to play. UNLV managed to keep the lead in single digits until a Queta bucket with 12:20 to play. Then it was really off to the races.
Bean hit three jumpers off of inbounds plays, Queta hit 7 of 8 second-half free throws, Worster had back-to-back contested layups. 30 of USU’s 50 second-half points were in the paint. And the Aggies soared to a 21 point victory.
“We’re happy to win,” said Smith. “It’s survive and advance at this time of year, and we’re looking forward to playing another game tomorrow, whether it’s against Colorado State or Fresno State.”