Aggies lose second straight
After permanently losing the lead eight minutes into the first half, the Utah State men’s basketball team lost its second conference game in a row. The University of Idaho came out on top 52-51 Saturday night.
Despite having the home crowd cheering them on, the Aggies last minute run wasn’t enough to give them the come-from-behind victory they did not deserve, but would have liked, said USU Head Coach Stew Morrill.
“We played about eight to 10 minutes of aggressive basketball and they played 40 minutes, they deserved to win,” he said.
The eight minutes of solid basketball that Morrill was referring to came during the final stretch as the Aggies fought back from a 10-point deficit, with the score 45-35.
With only 55 seconds remaining in the game, a shot from Desmond Penigar brought USU to within one point of the Vandals and placed the momentum in the Aggies’ favor. But having the momentum wasn’t enough as the Aggies where unable to capitalize on their last two possessions.
Following Penigar’s shot, USU put on the half-court pressure and forced a Vandal turnover off a bad pass. With 20 seconds remaining, Cardell Butler, who had hit two three-pointers earlier, received the ball with an open look from beyond the arch, but instead of shooting, he took it to the middle and missed the five-foot shot.
“He should have shot it, no question,” Morrill said, speaking of Butler’s first opportunity. “Cardell was one of our bright spots offensively. He should have jumped up and shot that, it was a wide-open look.”
After the rebound, the Aggies quickly fouled the Vandals to stop the clock at 13 seconds. With a chance to increase its lead, UI missed the one-and-one shots from the foul line, giving the Aggies the ball and a timeout with eight seconds on the clock.
On its last play, USU in-bounded the ball up top to Mark Brown, who connected with Butler, the only open player for the Aggies, standing behind the arch in the right corner. Forced by the clock to put up the shot, Butler missed the three, giving the Vandals the one-point victory.
“We tried to run a high ball screen,” Morrill said of their last play. “Cardell got a decent look, not a great look. If I had to do it over again I wouldn’t have called timeout, I would have let them come down on the break and see what we could’ve got,” he said.
But looking back at the last eight seconds is not going to help USU. The entire game the Aggies were beat by the Vandal’s hustle, including the rebounds, Butler said.
“We were real soft tonight — they out-physicaled us mentally and physically,” he said. “They came out with the rebounds 16 to nine at half and that proves right there we weren’t aggressive at all.”
For the game, UI ended up with 31 rebounds, including 10 offensive boards, while USU ended up with 26, eight of which came from the offensive glass.
In addition to out-rebounding the Aggies, during the second half in the midst of a screaming crowd, the Vandals were matching every point USU scored until the last five minutes of the game.
One reason for keeping ahead of USU was the Vandals’ forward Tyrone Hayes, who finished the night with 20 points.
Aggie Toraino Johnson was given the responsibility of guarding Hayes most the night and did a good job of it, Morrill said, but it’s hard to stop Hayes when he is hitting great shots.
The Aggies were led by Nate Harris, who finished the night with 13 points, Cardell Butler (12) and Desmond Penigar (11).
Yet it wasn’t enough, Harris said.
“It’s really tough for us to win when we have to come from behind,” he said. “Idaho came out as the aggressor for the entire first half and most of the second. We didn’t decide to play until late in the game and we can’t win that way.”
The Aggies have two home games next week to find their rhythm. USU hosts CS Northridge on Thursday at 6:35 p.m.
–csmo@cc.usu.edu