Ags look to get back on track against Spartans
Coming off two rough road losses, the men’s basketball team returns home to face off against San Jose State Saturday.
With senior forward Chaz Spicer rising to become one of the team’s leading scorers, he is sure to give San Jose a run for their money.
Spicer scored 12 points against Nevada last Saturday, just shy of USU’s leading scorer, junior guard Jaycee Carroll, who put 15 points on the board. Spicer improved his game against Hawaii State last Monday, making three 3-pointers and leading the team with 18 points.
Carroll’s points per game are slowly declining, with scoring a total of only 28 points his last two games. Carroll, who made just one 3-pointer at Hawaii State, will need to get back into his rhythm for USU to continue to compete at a high level in WAC play.
Along with Carroll, the team as a whole has not performed well in the 3-pointer area and has left the Aggies with low scores and two consecutive losses against Nevada and Hawaii. However, both of these games were on the road against teams with tight defense on the perimeter.
Fortunately for USU, who is 4-4 in the WAC, they are undefeated at home and have shown no signs of stopping the winning tradition.
The last time USU faced off against the San Jose State Spartans (1-7) on Jan. 20, they beat the Spartans by one point with a win of 57-56. San Jose scored eight 3-pointers, which was twice as many as the Aggies, and had more players scoring in the double-digits. San Jose senior Menelik Barbary will not be easy to shut down. This 6-foot-10 center scored 16 points against the Aggies and is the Spartan’s top returning scorer.
The Aggies will be playing one of the most difficult games thus far when New Mexico State, ranked second in the WAC, comes to Logan on Monday.
New Mexico, 8-1 in WAC play, showed no mercy with their 80-73 win against No. 15 nationally ranked Nevada State (8-1) last Saturday, which was Nevada’s first road loss all year. Junior forward Tyrone Nelson and junior guard Justin Hawkins both walked away with impressive scoring against Nevada. The duo combined to score 13 points in the first six minutes of the game.
New Mexico also beat San Jose, a team USU barely slid by, on Jan. 6. With Hawkins’ scoring a career-high 29 points and Nelson placing an additional 15 points on the board, the final score was 74-68.
If USU wants to have a chance against San Jose and New Mexico, they need to drastically improve both their offensive and defensive strategies.
-bfairman@cc.usu.edu