Men’s Basketball: Lights out
USU opened its 2008-09 regular season in front of more than 8,500 fans with its 55th consecutive victory over a non-conference opponent. The Aggies controlled the ball on the opening tip, and the game from there, beating Montana State-Northern 71-50.
Senior Gary Wilkinson started things off for the Ags with a layup on a nice pass from Pooh Williams. It was a scene with which the Lights would become very, very familiar. Wilkinson led USU with a double-double scoring 24 points, on 10-of-11 shooting, and pulling down 12 rebounds.
“Gary had an awfully big night, they didn’t have an answer for him,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We just didn’t think they could handle us inside, and that’s kind of our philosophy anyway is to try and establish ourselves inside.”
The Aggies dominated the paint, with every made field goal coming from inside until only seven minutes remained in the game. All told, USU outscored MSUN by 46 points in the paint, 54-8.
Wilkinson said the game plan was to get the ball inside and play an inside-out game. He said all of USU’s post players are skilled and want the ball, and that the Aggies inside presence will open the game up for the perimeter players as well.
“Night after night it’s going to be different, and that’s what’s going to make this team good,” Wilkinson said. “We don’t have a Jaycee Carroll, so they’re going to have to prepare for three or four guys which is really hard to do.”
After a quick start, the Aggie offense bogged down midway through the first period. The Aggie defense didn’t slow down, however, shutting down the Lights potent offense.
“Defensively is where I think we’re going to win our games,” Wilkinson said. “I think we have the capability and the talent to be a good defensive team, it just takes us having the desire and working. Defense is something that you can come out night after night and do, you’re going to miss shots and you’re not going to have the best offensive game, but defense and rebounding you can come out night after night and be a good defender and be a good rebounder if you just put your mind to it.”
The drought wouldn’t last long though. Sophomore Tai Wesley made a layup and was fouled, bringing the crowd to its feet. Wesley completed the 3-point play to give the Ags some momentum.
Wesley helped raise the decibel level even higher when he connected with sophomore Modou Niang under the basket. Niang slammed it home with two hands much to the delight of the Spectrum crowd.
Led by the strong play of Wilkinson, the Ags continued to pull away, heading into the break holding a 10-point halftime lead, 35-25.
In the second half the Lights tried to slow down Wilkinson by double-teaming him. MSUN had to pick its poison though, as Wilkinson found the open man every time the double came and found the basket when it didn’t.
A barrage of 3’s, many by senior sharpshooter Travis Noble, kept the Lights within striking distance for a while. However, despite Noble’s 18 points, the Aggies continued to pull away. With just over seven minutes left in the game, the ‘up by 20′ chants rang through the student section.
The Aggies were able to close out the lights and start the season off on the right foot. Now the Ags will get their first real test of the season when they travel on the road to take on former Big West foe UC Santa Barbara tonight at 8 p.m.
“I think we’re going to play really hard, but we’ve got to have some guys step up and believe they can play, that’s really important for this team,” Morrill said. “We’ll loosen up and get better, we usually do, and we have to.”
Ags solve turnover problem
After turning the ball over an uncharacteristic 19 times in the Aggies victory over Concordia, USU stopped the bleeding against the Lights. The Ags kept the total in single digits, turning the ball over only eight times. Also, no Aggie player had more than two turnovers on the night.
Play of the game
After Friday nights game there was a plethora of plays to choose from, but this week’s award goes to Modou Niang. Assisted by Wesley, Niang’s two-handed slam brought down the roof while bringing the fans to their feet.
On the defensive side of the ball, the award has to go to junior Jared Quayle. Quayle made a sweet swipe to thwart a MSUN fast break after the Lights had stole the ball from the Ags. After mistakenly awarding Quayle’s 4-point play against Concordia to Tyler Newbold last week, Quayle found his way back into the play of the game.
USU sophomore center Modou Niang dunks the ball over NMSU defenders Friday night as Tai Wesley looks on.