Peterson leaves UVSC green with envy
Drinking Kool-aid and getting a haircut were reasons senior guard Durrall Peterson gave for having a hot shooting night.
“Peterson was shooting the heck out of the ball,” sophomore guard Jaycee Carroll said. “He had a great game, and once he started hitting, they couldn’t think about me as much, and it took pressure off of me.”
Whatever the reason, the Aggies – particularly Carroll and Peterson – put on a display of shooting to the delight of spectators at the Spectrum Wednesday evening. The two combined to shoot 13-of-19 from three point range and helped lead USU to a 81-70 victory over in-state foes Utah Valley State College.
Carroll converted 7-of-9 on three-pointers to combine for his 21 points.
Peterson finished the game with a career-high 26 points. He made six three-pointers to go along with seven rebounds and five assists while only recording one turnover. His great all-around game was credited in part to the fact that he was playing two positions all night and got more minutes than usual.
Usual point guard Mikel Watson is having knee problems and will likely have to undergo surgery, putting him out for a few weeks, Head Coach Stew Morrill said.
The coach said he feels confident Peterson will be able to do a good job playing point guard until Watson returns.
“Durrall is comfortable there because he understands our system, and he is a smart basketball player,” Morrill said.
Carroll agreed with Morrill, saying he felt Peterson did a good job relieving starting point guard Kris Clark during the game.
“Durrall does a good job,” Carroll said. “He handles the ball and he makes good decisions when he is at point guard. He deserves a lot of credit.”
Credit should also go to Morrill for implementing a relatively new play on offense and bringing back some old plays that worked for former Aggie shooting-great Tony Brown.
“We set up some new stuff where I come off a ball screen,” Carroll said. “Teams have been hard, trapping me, and so if we do that then we can make a pass and get some open shots.”
“We added a couple new wrinkles that got us a few shots,” Morrill said. “We brought some plays back from a long time ago and got some pretty good looks.”
“If we add plays, they’re going to be mostly plays that we have ran. I am tired of making up stuff that don’t work. We need to run the stuff that’s worked for all those years. Sure enough, it’s pretty good stuff; that’s why we ran it ten years ago.”
The game opened up with an energy and intensity that had been lacking in the Aggies’ two previous games which resulted in road losses. Peterson said he credits the crowd for helping him come out with a lot of energy.
“As soon as you come out and see your crowd like that and see your fan base, especially after two losses, it’s easy for the crowd to not come out, but they did,” he said. “Any time the crowd comes out, they know I am going to give ’em a show.”
After falling down by seven points early in the game, the Aggies relied on the hot shooting from Carroll and Peterson to keep them in the game for the first half. The Aggies went into the half down by two. The Aggies found themselves down by seven within a minute of the second half before the team’s accurate shooting became too much for the visiting Wolverines.
“When you shoot the ball like that, it gives you a chance to win,” Morrill said.
Morrill played only seven players and got key contributions from starting point guard Clark and big man Stephen DuCharme. Clark dished out five assists and didn’t commit any turnovers. DuCharme scored 15 points as he shot 13 free throws, making seven of them. Carroll played the entire 40 minutes of the game and Peterson played for 34.
Peterson was not the only Peterson in the game the home crowd was rooting for. UVSC starting forward Matt Peterson graduated from Logan High in 2001. A group of USU students who were high school friends of Peterson displayed signs to show support for the visiting senior who said he was happy to come back home and play.
“I heard them yelling at me and it was fun playing in front of them,” he said.
Peterson scored 14 points for the Wolverines on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from behind the three-point arc. Ryan Toolson scored 16 points for UVSC on 7-of-13 shooting. With the loss, UVSC drops to 10-6 on the season.
The Aggies improved their record to 11-5 and will return to conference play as they host Louisiana Tech at home Saturday, Jan. 13. Louisiana Tech comes into the game with a 2-0 conference record and a 4-10 record overall.
-samabry@cc.usu.edu