No scare on Halloween for Aggies
After only a week of practice, the USU men’s basketball team took the court Friday night for its first contest of the 2008-09 season.
It took the Ags a minute to find their rhythm, but there was no scare on Halloween night as USU easily handled the Crusaders of Northwest Nazarene University, 73-46.
Despite the fact that it was only an exhibition game, Aggie fans showed up early and were their usual raucous selves. It was the first opportunity to see USU’s myriad of new players perform against competition from another team.
“It felt good to play against somebody other than ourselves,” said junior transfer Jared Quayle. “It felt good, it felt real good … but we’ve got a lot of improvement to do.”
The Aggies traded baskets with the Crusaders early, finding themselves tied with NNU nearly seven minutes into the game. The stalemate, however, wouldn’t last long.
Quayle ignited the Aggie crowd and the Aggie offense with USU’s first 3-pointer of the game. Then, the Aggies lone senior, Gary Wilkinson, took the game over. Crashing the boards and taking it to the basket, Wilkinson led the Aggies on a 19-2 run.
Heading into the intermission, USU held a comfortable 10-point lead.
“I thought we came out and played hard, played aggressive,” sophomore Tyler Newbold said. “We’re trying to do things right, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
USU head coach Stew Morrill agreed.
“We played hard, we tried really hard.” Morrill said. “It’s hard for guys to get in a flow sometimes when they don’t stay out there very long.”
In the second half the Crusaders, helped by some questionable foul calling, hung with the Aggies early. Back-to-back 3-pointers by NNU cut the Aggie lead to single digits.
USU would again answer. Quayle stripped the ball from the Crusaders then fed a streaking Newbold. Newbold found a cutting Pooh Williams for an easy layup ending the NNU run.
“I thought they played hard, they’ve got a veteran team back and they’re well coached,” Morrill said about the Crusaders. “They came out determined to compete.”
Despite that determination, the Aggies pulled away to end the game.
Sophomore forward Tai Wesley led the Ags with 18-points on 7-of-10 shooting while Wilkinson added 13-points and eight rebounds. Other top peformers included Newbold with nine points and Quayle who, along with freshman Brady Jardine, snagged seven rebounds.
“There’s a popular saying nowadays, ‘It is what it is,’ and that’s what that was,” Morill said. “It’s an exhibition game, playing all 14 guys, trying to figure out where we’re at and what we need to work on.”
USU now has a week to off to practice and prepare for its next contest. The Aggies will return to action in the Spectrum against Concordia on Saturday, Nov. 8, for their second and final exhibition game.
“We’ve got some practice time which we should have,” Morrill said. “This game came way too early for my liking.”
– t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu