Ags get first two WAC wins
Something was different about Nick Hammer on Monday night.
Perhaps it was the new LeBron James shoes or maybe he was just feeling it. Whatever the case, the junior guard played the best game of his career as the Aggies beat the University of Idaho 74-56 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Junior guard Jaycee Carroll praised his teammate saying, “Nick Hammer played a great game. It has to do with the way he’s been practicing. In practice he’s been coming every day and working and playing hard. The fruits of his labors are starting to show off now in game-time situations.”
Hammer hit 14 of his career-high 15 shots in the first half, including four straight three-pointers to give the Aggies a comfortable 42-34 lead at halftime.
“With our point guard situation, Nick’s getting more minutes and he’s responded,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “When you get more opportunities as a player, you need to take advantage of it and he’s doing that.”
Hot shooting from Hammer freed up Carroll, giving the Aggies the points they needed to win. Carroll scored 25 points to lead the team in scoring and shot an impressive 76.9 percent from the field. He was 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and snagged five assists and two steals.
Though Carroll was the top scorer, Hammer’s contribution was critical in providing Carroll with open looks, Morrill said.
“I think it’s just making shots,” Hammer said. “I wasn’t making shots earlier, and now I’m making shots. The key was we can’t let someone come in here and box and one Jaycee and get away with it. Someone’s got to contribute when they want to take Jaycee out.”
Junior center Stephen DuCharme also got in on the double-digit scoring action as he posted 11 points and four rebounds on the night.
Even though the Aggies shot 54.9 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from the three-point range, the hottest shooting of the night came from Idaho’s Keoni Watson. The 5’8″ point guard overcame his short stature by posting 26 points-nearly half the total points for his team.
In the first half he consistently slipped past Aggie defenders, nailing 5-of-7 shots from beyond the arc. The Aggies struggled to defend him, Morrill said.
“We were trying to guard him,” he said. “Holy smokes he is quick. If we had our Watson he might have had enough quickness to guard him better than we were able to. He’s so small and quick, and now he shoots it so well. We didn’t do a good enough job playing team defense, helping on him.
“We tried to play drive defense in the first half and he’s bombing threes. And we’re trying to take away the three in the second half and he’s driving around us.”
Watson wasn’t the only Vandal hitting three-pointers. Trevor Morris contributed four three-pointers from the bench. Other than the 30 points from three-point baskets, the remaining Idaho players contributed little.
“They struggled with shooting the ball,” Morrill said of Idaho. “We shot a pretty high percentage and got good looks at the basket. I think Idaho’s team is better than their record. The first half they showed that.”
On the whole, the Aggies delivered a cleaner performance than in previous WAC games, only allowing 11 turnovers, something they have struggled with this season.
“I feel like the team is getting better,” Carroll said. “As a team, our assists to turnovers are so much better than they’ve been. We’ve gotten better at sharing the ball and making plays for each other. And I’ve just been the recipient of a lot of those good plays by my teammates.”
Scouting the Broncos
As the final leg of USU’s four-game homestand, the Aggies will get a chance to get even with Boise State Thursday evening at 7:05 at the Spectrum.
In the last match in Boise, the Broncos downed the Aggies 77-66. The game opened with a 20-4 run that left the Aggies scrambling to catch up the remainder of the game. The real killer for USU was their 11 first-half turnovers.
“Boise’s good,” Morrill said. “Boise’s a lot better than they were a year ago. We don’t have the same people we had a year ago. I think we’re making some progress. The biggest thing is Boise guards you so well. They’re certainly good offensively and they space you out, but they’re really defending well.”
The Broncos were led in the last game by Matt Nelson, who scored 18 points. Three other Boise State players recorded double figures in that game.
The Aggies struggled to score, shooting a mere 37.1 percent from the field and only making one three-point basket the entire game.
This game marks an important rematch that could put the Aggies ahead in the WAC standings.
“We just can’t turn the ball over and let them run on us,” Hammer said. “They ran us out of the gym up at Boise. We need to slow them down and not turn the ball over.”
-sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu