USU’s Vague was not to be denied
Jeremy Vague was on fire Saturday night , leading the Aggies in their win over Cal Poly with two steals, an assist, eight rebounds and 25 points, including two slam dunks, in 23 minutes of play.
“That was a great performance by Jeremy Vague,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “He was very, very aggressive. I was awfully pleased with him.”
Vague blew his former career high of 18 points, which he set on Dec. 28, 2001 against Centenary, out of the water. In the first half, he made 5-of-6 field goals and went 5 for 7 at the line.
By halftime, Vague had already scored 15 points in 14 minutes of play, and 11 minutes into the second half, he scored the field goal which broke his record and brought his point total to 19.
Apparently thinking he hadn’t done enough, he followed it up with a slam dunk less than 30 seconds later and went on to score four more points before he was taken out of the game with six minutes remaining.
“Jeremy played awesome,” Tony Brown said. “He’s got such good height, he’s strong, and he’s got good moves.”
When asked about Vague’s play, Desmond Penigar said, “Jeremy does that at practice all the time. He’s got to do it more. If he keeps on playing like that, then we can go a long way.”
Vague said he didn’t really play any differently than usual, and his success was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. He said another reason he played so well was because Cal Poly had gloated after defeating the Aggies on Jan. 3, a game in which Vague didn’t score at all.
“When we went down to Cal Poly, we
didn’t play too well, and today we came out here with a little chip on our shoulder,” he said. “We had to have that edge tonight, and we did a good job of coming out and playing really physical. I wanted it as bad as anybody.”
Morrill said Vague played really well but needed to work on avoiding foul trouble and being more consistent, noting that he played 12 minutes during Thursday’s game against the University of California Santa Barbara and only scored four points.
“If he can find a happy medium, if we can get a consistent performance out of Jeremy, that would sure help,” Morrill said. “A lot of times his problem has been that he gets a couple of quick fouls, and then he’s watching the game.”
Morrill said he talked to Vague before the game and told him to play like he did against the University of California Riverside, where he scored 17 points.
“I told him after the game that if I need to yell at you all the time, I’ll do it if you are going to play that well,” he said.