Green lights it up from deep as Aggies quiet T-birds
The Utah State Aggies (2-1) bounced back from their difficult road loss to BYU Saturday night as they defeated the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, 66-53.
The Thunderbirds (1-2) have yet to win a game at home this season. Senior guard Brian Green led the Aggies with a career-high 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
“Brian Green is playing really well for us,” Morrill said. “That is certainly helping us, when you have a guy making shots, and he is making shots. He is just such a terrific shooter, so confident and plays so hard. He’s a fireball out there. He’s an awfully fun kid to coach.”
Aggie senior forward Tai Wesley scored the first two points of the game, but the Thunderbirds responded with two free-throws and it looked like the Aggies were in for a battle. Two free-throws from senior forward Pooh Williams put the Aggies up by two, however, and they would lead the rest of the way.
The Aggies played very stingy defense on the Thunderbirds especially in the first half. The Thunderbirds hit only 25 percent (5-of-20) of their shots from the field. They shot better in the second half, but the Aggies held them to just eight field goals.
“I thought we played hard, which was a factor in us defending pretty well,” Morrill said. “Other than No. 13 ( Ramell Taylor) getting away from us a little bit, our defense was pretty solid.”
Senior forward Taylor scored a game-high 22 points and 20 of those points came in the second half. He didn’t get much help from his teammates however, as he was the only Thunderbird to reach double-digits. Senior guard Ryan Brimley was second best scorer, coming off the bench and scored nine points for the Thunderbirds.
The Aggies stretched their lead to 10 points at the end of the first half, but seven straight points from Taylor to start the second half cut the Aggie lead to 36-32.
The Aggies would respond however, as a Wesley lay-up sparked a 13-0 run that was capped by a fall away jumper from Williams. Green hit a 3-pointer and four consecutive free-throws as a part of that run.
“When you come down here, you know it’s going to be a fight,” Morrill said. “We are glad to get out of here with a win.”
Aside from Green, the Aggies struggled in the second half with free-throws, as they hit only 7-of-12 attempts. The dismal free-throw percentage didn’t affect the outcome this time around however, as the Thunderbirds committed too many turnovers.
“We were close but then we stopped executing, too, which is also disappointing,” Thunderbirds head coach Roger Reid said. “I thought we played hard but we’ve got to play smart, too. We can’t let them control the game, and we did, we let them bump us and push us around, and we stopped executing.”
Wesley was the only other Aggie to reach double-digits, finishing with 12 points on the night. Wesley’s 12-point performance moved him into 15th place all-time in school history.
The Aggies will now prepare for two home games this week. The Aggies will face the University of Utah Utes on Wednesday and the Northeastern University Huskies on Saturday. The Aggies will be looking for revenge on both teams as they lost to the Utes on the road last season, 68-67, and they lost to the Huskies 64-61 last season on the road as well.
Both games will tip off in the Spectrum at 7:05 p.m.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu