Upset victory oh so close
The Utah State men’s basketball team didn’t earn a trip to the first round of the NCAA Tournament by racking up moral victories. Nor would it settle for one Thursday against No. 2 seed Kansas.
The No. 15 seed Aggies were hungry for a second round appearance and national recognition.
“We’re disappointed,” said Utah State assistant coach Don Verlin in a post-game radio interview. “One thing we’ve brought here to Aggie basketball is a tradition of winning. We’re disappointed we lost, we thought we should have won. I thought we outplayed them, especially for the last 30 minutes of the ballgame.”
Despite two last-ditch efforts by USU to tie the game and send it into overtime, Kansas was able to hold onto a heartbreaking 64-61 win at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
The Jayhawks will take on No. 10-seed Arizona State on Saturday in the second round of the tournament.
Kansas Head Coach Roy Williams said he felt extremely lucky to come away with the victory, considering the near debacle his team experienced last season. Then, as a No. 1 seed, the Jayhawks trailed No. 16 Holy Cross at the break before pulling away.
Down by as many as 13 points in the first half, USU made a somewhat surprising comeback — and what was nearly an even more so shocking victory.
The Aggies used their final timeout with 10.3 seconds left on the clock to set up their final play.
USU’s Desmond Penigar attempted a three-point shot at the top of the key to tie the game at 64-64, but missed. Cardell Butler ended up with the ball after a scramble for the rebound and also tried for a trey, this time on the right side, but watched the ball clank off the rim instead.
After shaking off their nerves in the beginning of the game, the Aggies settled down and brought the score to 34-30 at halftime. USU also found itself within one point twice during the second half.
“Once we got back in and figured out, ‘hey, we can play with these guys,’ then we were good to go,” Verlin said. “Just coming down the stretch it was tough because I thought we had plenty of opportunities to win this game, and we just came up a couple of baskets short.”
Aggie guard Mark Brown recorded an uncharacteristically high six turnovers on the night, which could be contributed to the faster style of play Kansas provided.
Verlin said the Aggies struggled to stop the Jayhawks in transition, but were successful in spurts.
“What happened was there was certain times in the game where they would get three or four quick baskets in a row, and then we would have to fight the hill again,” he said. “We did a good job for the most part of stopping their transition, they just got a few too many on us for us to win the basketball game.”
One of the biggest keys to USU being in the game was holding Kansas’ Kirk Hinrich in check. The senior, who was averaging 17.6 ppg, shot 3-for-7 from the field, and finished the night with eight points.
Keith Langford (15.4 ppg) led the Jayhawks with 22 points, while Nick Collison (18.4 ppg) added 18.
Penigar led all scorers with 25 points, while Spencer Nelson chipped in 10.
Verlin described Penigar’s performance as the best he has seen him play since he came to USU from Ventura Junior College two years ago.
Cardell Butler, who entered the NCAA Tournament red hot after three-consecutive double digit scoring nights, finished with seven points.
Aside from containing Hinrich, another key for the Aggies was to rebound well. USU won the battle of the boards 30-27.
Penigar and Nelson each grabbed nine rebounds for Utah State, while Collison and Jeff Graves led Kansas with seven boards apiece.
“That was an excellent effort,” Verlin said. “We did everything we needed to do to win the game, and in the end it was disappointing.”
With the loss, USU fell to 1-4 in the NCAA Tournament in the last five years.
–juag@cc.usu.edu