Aggies barely escape Jackrabbits
A win counts as a win in the record book regardless of how you get it.
The USU men’s basketball team picked up their fifth-straight win Wednesday night with a 56-50 victory at South Dakota State. The Aggies are now 5-1 on the season.
The Aggies, who took an 11-point lead into halftime, struggled in the second half. At one point, South Dakota State went on a 14-0 scoring run over a stretch of five minutes to take a six-point lead. The run was helped out largely by lackadaisical ball handling by the Aggies.
Head Coach Stew Morrill said he was unimpressed with the play of his team.
“It was an ugly basketball game,” Morrill said in a post-game interview. “We just could not take care of the ball. Their defense was solid, and we were trying too hard to force it.”
Even though the Aggies turned the ball over 23 times, Coach Morrill said he was happy to pick up a win on the road.
“We’ll take it. I told the kids that I don’t want them to feel horrible about a road win,” Morrill said. “It was ugly; we just made the plays at the end. That is a credit to our guys – they found a way to win under those circumstances. We could have got really frustrated.”
After a stretch in the second half where both teams seemed to be in a contest for who could turn the ball over the most, two Aggie veterans stepped up and made some big plays to help Utah State regain the lead.
After scoring 14 points in the first half, Jaycee Carroll was largely held in check throughout the beginning of the second half. With the Aggies trailing by six, the junior guard came into the game and scored six straight points to bring the team back into the game. Carroll ended the game with 20 points. He shot 7 for 13 from the field in addition to 2 for 4 beyond the three point line.
Stew Morrill credited South Dakota State’s tight defense for slowing down Carroll in the second half.
“They took Jaycee Carroll and bumped him and rode him and denied him, and took everyone else and just sagged,” Morrill said.
Although he only finished with six points, senior forward Durrall Peterson was critical in helping to foul out South Dakota’s leading scorer, Matt Cadwell, who scored 14 points for the game. When it looked like South Dakota was pulling away in the second half, Peterson stepped up and drew a charge on Cadwell, who then had to leave the game with four fouls. It was during this time period that the Aggies fought back into the game. Shortly after returning to the game, Peterson again drew a charge on Cadwell to foul him out of the game.
Peterson’s hustle did not go unnoticed by Morrill, who said he was relieved to see the defensive effort from his senior guard.
“Durall really is taking charges,” he said. “We went out and defended someone for the whole game.”
Peterson understands that this year with the loss of two big men from last year’s team (Nate Harris and Cass Matheus) the guys on the perimeter can’t let any one get by them and get easy buckets.
“I took the responsibility this year of being a perimeter defender,” Peterson said. “I try to pride myself and play better defense.”
Peterson not only stayed in front of his man against the Jackrabbits on Wednesday night, but has been doing so the whole year. According to a post-game interview, Peterson has now drawn eight charges in the six games this season.
In addition to the Aggies returning starters stepping up, contributions from Chaz Spicer and newcomer Stephen DuCharme helped the Aggies win their fifth straight game. Spicer pulled down 10 rebounds and had two blocked shots. DuCharme shot 5 for 6 from the field and scored 11 points while grabbing eight boards. DuCharme is shooting an amazing 83 percent from field on 25 for 30 shooting on the season.
Coach Stew Morrill said he knows the team is going to have to be much improved if they want to win their upcoming games.
“Were going to have to be a team that doesn’t turn it over and finds a way to be tough guarding the post because we are undersized,” Morrill said. “We have some limitations that we’re going to have to play through to get better.”
The Aggies will look to continue their win streak as they return home to the Spectrum to face Idaho State on Saturday, after which they will host rival Utah on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
-samabry@cc.usu.edu